Both Nikon D3S and Nikon D90 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D3S's sensor is Full frame (36 x 23.9 mm ) and Nikon D90's sensor is APS-C (23.6 x 15.8 mm ).
Since Nikon D3S'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 D90.
Below you can see the D3S and D90 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D3S has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D90. 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 D3S and Nikon D90 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, D3S has scored 82, 9 points higher than D90.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D3S |
82 |
23.5 bits |
12.0 Evs |
3253 ISO |
Nikon D90 |
73 |
22.7 bits |
12.5 Evs |
977 ISO |