Both Sony A7 and Canon M5 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony A7's sensor is Full frame (35.8 x 23.9 mm ) and Canon M5's sensor is APS-C (22.3 x 14.9 mm ).
Since Sony A7'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 Canon M5.
Below you can see the A7 and M5 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony A7 has a 2.6x Larger sensor area than Canon M5. 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 Sony A7 and Canon M5 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, A7 has scored 90, 13 points higher than M5.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Sony A7 |
90 |
24.8 bits |
14.2 Evs |
2248 ISO |
Canon M5 |
77 |
23.4 bits |
12.4 Evs |
1262 ISO |