Panasonic GX8 has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor. On the other hand, Nikon 1 J5 has a
21.0MP 1' (13.2 x 8.8 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor and features Expeed 5A processor.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Nikon 1 J5'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 GX8 and J5 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Panasonic GX8 has a 1.9x Larger sensor area than Nikon 1 J5. 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 Panasonic GX8 and Nikon 1 J5 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, GX8 has scored 75, 10 points higher than J5.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic GX8 |
75 |
23.5 bits |
12.6 Evs |
806 ISO |
Nikon 1 J5 |
65 |
22.1 bits |
12.0 Evs |
479 ISO |