Panasonic GH3 has a
16.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine VII FHD processor. On the other hand, Olympus E-M1 II has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.4 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VIII processor.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Olympus E-M1 II's sensor doesn't have an 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 GH3 and E-M1 II sensor size comparison.
Panasonic GH3 and Olympus E-M1 II have almost the same sensor size, so neither of them has any significant advantage over the other in terms of providing control over depth of field when used with the 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 GH3 and Olympus E-M1 II sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that E-M1 II has a better overall score of 80, 9 points higher compared to GH3's score of 71.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic GH3 |
71 |
22.7 bits |
12.4 Evs |
812 ISO |
Olympus E-M1 II |
80 |
23.7 bits |
12.8 Evs |
1312 ISO |