Both Nikon D3200 and Nikon D5500 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D3200's sensor is APS-C (23.2 x 15.4 mm ) and Nikon D5500's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ).
Since Nikon D5500'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 D3200.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Nikon D5500's sensor doesn't have an 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 D3200 and D5500 sensor size comparison.
Nikon D3200 and Nikon D5500 have almost the same sensor size, so neither of them has any significant advantage over the other in terms of providing control over depth of field when used with the 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 D3200 and Nikon D5500 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D5500 has a better overall score of 84, 3 points higher compared to D3200's score of 81.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D3200 |
81 |
24.1 bits |
13.2 Evs |
1131 ISO |
Nikon D5500 |
84 |
24.1 bits |
14.0 Evs |
1438 ISO |