Both Nikon D7000 and Panasonic G3 have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D7000's sensor is APS-C (23.6 x 15.7 mm ) and Panasonic G3's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Nikon D7000'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 Panasonic G3.
Below you can see the D7000 and G3 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D7000 has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Panasonic G3. 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 D7000 and Panasonic G3 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, D7000 has scored 80, 24 points higher than G3.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D7000 |
80 |
23.5 bits |
13.9 Evs |
1167 ISO |
Panasonic G3 |
56 |
21.0 bits |
10.6 Evs |
667 ISO |