Both Sony A9 and Nikon D5200 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony A9's sensor is Full frame (35.6 x 23.8 mm ) and Nikon D5200's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ).
Since Sony A9'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 Nikon D5200.
Below you can see the A9 and D5200 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony A9 has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Nikon D5200. 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 A9 and Nikon D5200 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, A9 has scored 92, 8 points higher than D5200.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Sony A9 |
92 |
24.9 bits |
13.3 Evs |
3517 ISO |
Nikon D5200 |
84 |
24.2 bits |
13.9 Evs |
1284 ISO |