Both Nikon D80 and Canon 1D MIII have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Nikon D80's sensor is APS-C (23.6 x 15.8 mm ) and Canon 1D MIII's sensor is APS-H (28.7 x 18.7 mm ).
Since Canon 1D MIII'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 D80.
Below you can see the D80 and 1D MIII sensor size comparison.
![Nikon D80 vs Canon 1D MIII Sensor Size Comparison]()
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Nikon D80 and Canon 1D MIII Cameras
As seen above, Canon 1D MIII has a 1.4x Larger sensor area than Nikon D80. 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 D80 and Canon 1D MIII sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that 1D MIII has a better overall score of 71, 10 points higher compared to D80's score of 61.
| Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
|
Nikon D80 |
61 |
22.1 bits |
11.2 Evs |
524 ISO |
|
Canon 1D MIII |
71 |
22.7 bits |
11.7 Evs |
1078 ISO |