Both Panasonic GH5 and Canon R6 have 20.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic GH5's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Canon R6's sensor is Full frame (36 x 24 mm ).
Since Canon R6'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 GH5.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Panasonic GH5'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 GH5 and R6 sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Panasonic GH5 and Canon R6 Cameras
As seen above, Canon R6 has a 3.8x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GH5. 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. Panasonic GH5 and Canon R6 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that R6 has a better overall score of 90, 13 points higher compared to GH5's score of 77.
Model
Overall
Color Depth
Dynamic Range
Low-light ISO
Panasonic GH5
77
23.9 bits
13.0 Evs
807 ISO
Canon R6
90
24.2 bits
14.3 Evs
3394 ISO
Sensor size sets the circle of confusion, so it drives how much depth of field each
of these bodies gives you at a given aperture. You can calculate it exactly for the
Panasonic GH5
or the
Canon R6 ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(Four Thirds versus Full frame),
so compare them at the same framing rather than the same focal length.
Put the same focal length on the smaller sensor and it will show less depth of
field, not more, because it also crops tighter. The calculator shows the
full frame equivalent focal length for each body so you can match the framing.
