Both Panasonic GH5 and Sony RX10 IV have 20.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic GH5's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Sony RX10 IV's sensor is 1″ (13.2 x 8.8 mm ).
Since Panasonic GH5'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 Sony RX10 IV.
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 RX10 IV sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Panasonic GH5 and Sony RX10 IV Cameras
As seen above, Panasonic GH5 has a 1.9x Larger sensor area than Sony RX10 IV. 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.
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
Sony RX10 IV ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(Four Thirds versus 1″ ),
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.
