Both Panasonic GX850 and Sony NEX-5R have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic GX850's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Sony NEX-5R's sensor is APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm ).
Since Sony NEX-5R'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 GX850.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Panasonic GX850'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 GX850 and NEX-5R sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Panasonic GX850 and Sony NEX-5R Cameras
As seen above, Sony NEX-5R has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GX850. 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 GX850 and Sony NEX-5R sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that NEX-5R has a better overall score of 78, 5 points higher compared to GX850's score of 73.
Model
Overall
Color Depth
Dynamic Range
Low-light ISO
Panasonic GX850
73
23.2 bits
13.3 Evs
586 ISO
Sony NEX-5R
78
23.7 bits
13.1 Evs
910 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 GX850
or the
Sony NEX-5R ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(Four Thirds versus APS-C),
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.
