Leica M9 has a
18.0MP Full frame (36 x 24 mm ) sized CCD sensor . On the other hand, Nikon D500 has a
21.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.7 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed 5 processor.
Another similarity between these two cameras is that both Nikon D500 and Leica M9 sensors lack anti-alias (Low-Pass) filters. 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 D500 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Leica M9 has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D500. 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. Leica M9 and Nikon D500 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D500 has a better overall score of 84, 15 points higher compared to M9's score of 69.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Leica M9 |
69 |
22.5 bits |
11.7 Evs |
884 ISO |
Nikon D500 |
84 |
24.1 bits |
14.0 Evs |
1324 ISO |