Both Nikon D3300 and Canon M5 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D3300's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) and Canon M5's sensor is APS-C (22.3 x 14.9 mm ).
Since Nikon D3300'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 Canon M5.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Nikon D3300'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 D3300 and M5 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D3300 has a 1.1x Larger sensor area than Canon M5. 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
Both Nikon D3300 and Canon M5 sensors have been tested by DxoMark. DxoMark 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. Of the two cameras that we are comparing, D3300 has scored 82, 5 points higher than M5.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D3300 |
82 |
24.3 bits |
12.8 Evs |
1385 ISO |
Canon M5 |
77 |
23.4 bits |
12.4 Evs |
1262 ISO |