Nikon D50 has a
6.0MP APS-C (23.7 x 15.5 mm ) sized CCD sensor . On the other hand, Nikon D800 has a
36.0MP Full frame (35.9 x 24 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed 3 processor.
Nikon D800's sensor provides 30MP more than Nikon D50's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
Below you can see the D50 and D800 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D800 has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D50. 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 D50 and Nikon D800 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D800 has a better overall score of 95, 40 points higher compared to D50's score of 55.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D50 |
55 |
20.9 bits |
10.8 Evs |
560 ISO |
Nikon D800 |
95 |
25.3 bits |
14.4 Evs |
2853 ISO |