Nikon D500 has a
21.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.7 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed 5 processor. On the other hand, Nikon Z6 has a
25.0MP Full frame (35.9 x 23.9 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor and features Expeed 6 processor.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Nikon D500'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 D500 and Z6 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon Z6 has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D500. 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 D500 and Nikon Z6 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that Z6 has a better overall score of 95, 11 points higher compared to D500's score of 84.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D500 |
84 |
24.1 bits |
14.0 Evs |
1324 ISO |
Nikon Z6 |
95 |
25.3 bits |
14.3 Evs |
3299 ISO |