Nikon 1 J5 has a
21.0MP 1' (13.2 x 8.8 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor and features Expeed 5A processor. On the other hand, Leica M10 has a
24.0MP Full frame (35.8 x 23.9 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Maestro II processor.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Nikon 1 J5'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 J5 and M10 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Leica M10 has a 7.4x Larger sensor area than Nikon 1 J5. 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. Nikon 1 J5 and Leica M10 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that M10 has a better overall score of 86, 21 points higher compared to J5's score of 65.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon 1 J5 |
65 |
22.1 bits |
12.0 Evs |
479 ISO |
Leica M10 |
86 |
24.4 bits |
13.3 Evs |
2133 ISO |