Canon G3 X has a
20.0MP 1″ (13.2 x 8.8 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor and features DIGIC 6 processor. On the other hand, Sony RX1R has a
24.0MP Full frame (35.8 x 23.9 mm ) sized CMOS sensor .
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Sony RX1R'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 G3 X and RX1R sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony RX1R has a 7.4x Larger sensor area than Canon G3 X. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in 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 G3 X and Sony RX1R sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that RX1R has a better overall score of 91, 28 points higher compared to G3 X's score of 63.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon G3 X |
63 |
21.4 bits |
12.3 Evs |
521 ISO |
Sony RX1R |
91 |
25.0 bits |
13.6 Evs |
2537 ISO |