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, Sony A77 II has a
24.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Bionz X processor.
Sony A77 II's sensor provides 8MP more than Panasonic GH3'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.
Below you can see the GH3 and A77 II sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony A77 II has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GH3. 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 GH3 and Sony A77 II sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that A77 II has a better overall score of 82, 11 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 |
Sony A77 II |
82 |
24.4 bits |
13.4 Evs |
1013 ISO |