Canon G9 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, Pentax K-3 has a
24.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Prime III processor.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Pentax K-3'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 G9 X and K-3 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Pentax K-3 has a 3.2x Larger sensor area than Canon G9 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 G9 X and Pentax K-3 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that K-3 has a better overall score of 80, 17 points higher compared to G9 X's score of 63.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon G9 X |
63 |
21.5 bits |
12.3 Evs |
495 ISO |
Pentax K-3 |
80 |
23.7 bits |
13.4 Evs |
1216 ISO |