Leica M9 has a
18.0MP Full frame (36 x 24 mm ) sized CCD sensor . On the other hand, Panasonic GX8 has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor.
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 GX8 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Leica M9 has a 3.8x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GX8. 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 Panasonic GX8 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that GX8 has a better overall score of 75, 6 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 |
Panasonic GX8 |
75 |
23.5 bits |
12.6 Evs |
806 ISO |