Both Nikon D750 and Pentax K-3 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D750's sensor is Full frame (35.9 x 24 mm ) and Pentax K-3's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ).
Since Nikon D750'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 Pentax K-3.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Pentax K-3's sensor doesn't have an 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 D750 and K-3 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D750 has a 2.4x Larger sensor area than Pentax K-3. 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 D750 and Pentax K-3 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, D750 has scored 93, 13 points higher than K-3.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Nikon D750 |
93 |
24.8 bits |
14.5 Evs |
2956 ISO |
Pentax K-3 |
80 |
23.7 bits |
13.4 Evs |
1216 ISO |