Olympus E-M1 II has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.4 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VIII processor. On the other hand, Nikon D300 has a
12.0MP APS-C (23.6 x 15.8 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed processor.
Olympus E-M1 II's sensor provides 8MP more than Nikon D300's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Olympus E-M1 II'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 E-M1 II and D300 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D300 has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-M1 II. 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 Olympus E-M1 II and Nikon D300 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, E-M1 II has scored 80, 13 points higher than D300.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus E-M1 II |
80 |
23.7 bits |
12.8 Evs |
1312 ISO |
Nikon D300 |
67 |
22.1 bits |
12.0 Evs |
679 ISO |