Sony RX100 II has a
20.0MP 1-inch (13.2 x 8.8 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor . On the other hand, Nikon D7100 has a
24.0MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) sized CMOS sensor .
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Nikon D7100'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 RX100 II and D7100 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D7100 has a 3.2x Larger sensor area than Sony RX100 II. 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. Sony RX100 II and Nikon D7100 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D7100 has a better overall score of 83, 16 points higher compared to RX100 II's score of 67.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Sony RX100 II |
67 |
22.5 bits |
12.4 Evs |
483 ISO |
Nikon D7100 |
83 |
24.2 bits |
13.7 Evs |
1256 ISO |