Both Nikon D3400 and Sony RX1 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D3400's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) and Sony RX1's sensor is Full frame (35.8 x 23.8 mm ).
Since Sony RX1'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 D3400.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Nikon D3400'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 D3400 and RX1 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony RX1 has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D3400. 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 D3400 and Sony RX1 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that RX1 has a better overall score of 93, 7 points higher compared to D3400's score of 86.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D3400 |
86 |
24.8 bits |
13.9 Evs |
1192 ISO |
Sony RX1 |
93 |
25.1 bits |
14.3 Evs |
2534 ISO |