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, Olympus PEN-F has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VII 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 PEN-F sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Olympus PEN-F has a 1.9x 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 Olympus PEN-F sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that PEN-F has a better overall score of 74, 9 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 |
Olympus PEN-F |
74 |
23.1 bits |
12.4 Evs |
894 ISO |