Both Sony NEX-6 and Olympus E-PL7 have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony NEX-6's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) and Olympus E-PL7's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Sony NEX-6'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 Olympus E-PL7.
Below you can see the NEX-6 and E-PL7 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony NEX-6 has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-PL7. 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 NEX-6 and Olympus E-PL7 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, NEX-6 has scored 78, 6 points higher than E-PL7.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Sony NEX-6 |
78 |
23.7 bits |
13.1 Evs |
1018 ISO |
Olympus E-PL7 |
72 |
22.7 bits |
12.4 Evs |
873 ISO |