Both Leica M9 and Nikon 1 V3 have 18.0 MP resolution sensors but Leica M9's sensor is Full frame (36 x 24 mm ) and Nikon 1 V3's sensor is 1' (13.2 x 8.8 mm ).
Since Leica M9'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 Nikon 1 V3.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Leica M9'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 M9 and 1 V3 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Leica M9 has a 7.4x Larger sensor area than Nikon 1 V3. 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 Leica M9 and Nikon 1 V3 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, M9 has scored 69, 17 points higher than 1 V3.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Leica M9 |
69 |
22.5 bits |
11.7 Evs |
884 ISO |
Nikon 1 V3 |
52 |
20.8 bits |
10.7 Evs |
384 ISO |