Olympus E-3 has a
10.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic III processor. On the other hand, Nikon D3 has a
12.0MP Full frame (36 x 23.9 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed processor.
Below you can see the E-3 and D3 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D3 has a 3.8x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-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
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. Olympus E-3 and Nikon D3 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D3 has a better overall score of 81, 25 points higher compared to E-3's score of 56.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus E-3 |
56 |
21.6 bits |
10.5 Evs |
571 ISO |
Nikon D3 |
81 |
23.5 bits |
12.2 Evs |
2290 ISO |