Both Fujifilm X100 and Panasonic GF5 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Fujifilm X100's sensor is APS-C (23.6 x 15.8 mm ) and Panasonic GF5's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Fujifilm X100's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Panasonic GF5.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Fujifilm X100's sensor lacks 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 X100 and GF5 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Fujifilm X100 has a 1.7x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GF5. 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
Both Fujifilm X100 and Panasonic GF5 sensors have been tested by DxoMark. DxoMark 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. Of the two cameras that we are comparing, X100 has scored 73, 23 points higher than GF5.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Fujifilm X100 |
73 |
22.9 bits |
12.4 Evs |
1001 ISO |
Panasonic GF5 |
50 |
20.5 bits |
10.0 Evs |
573 ISO |