Canon 70D has a
20.0MP APS-C (22.5 x 15 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Digic 5+ processor. On the other hand, Nikon D7100 has a
24.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) sized CMOS sensor .
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Nikon D7100's sensor doesn't have an anti-alias (Low-Pass) filter. Removing anti-alias filter increases the sharpness and level of detail but at the same time, it increases the chance of moiré occurring in certain scenes.
Below you can see the 70D and D7100 sensor size comparison.
Canon 70D and Nikon D7100 have almost the same sensor size, so neither of them has any significant advantage over the other in terms of providing control over depth of field when used with the same focal length and aperture.
DxOMark Sensor Scores
DxOMark is a benchmark that scientifically assesses image quality of camera sensors. It scores camera sensors for color depth (DXO Portrait), dynamic range (DXO Landscape) and low-light sensitivity (DXO Sports), and also gives them an overall score. Canon 70D and Nikon D7100 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D7100 has a better overall score of 83, 15 points higher compared to 70D's score of 68.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon 70D |
68 |
22.5 bits |
11.6 Evs |
926 ISO |
Nikon D7100 |
83 |
24.2 bits |
13.7 Evs |
1256 ISO |