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What my camera sensor can deliver? (28.09.2012)

There is a company named DXO Labs that does very thorough tests of like in this case, the quality of what the sensor can deliver.

We really would like to point out how DXO Labs is working and what they measure:

1. The color depth in portrait pictures (the skin tones is really, really hard to reproduce);

2. The dynamic range in Landscape pictures (dynamic range = the greatest possible amplitude between light and dark details a given sensor can record picture information);

3. Sports, low light ISO (Low-Light ISO indicates the highest ISO sensitivity to which your camera can be set while maintaining a high quality).

So how does the top list in the world look like? Here it is:

Nr	Camera	Mpix	Sensor format	Price EUR	Overall Score	Portrait (Color Depth) (Bits)	Landscape (Dynamic Depth) (Bits)	Sports (Low Light ISO)
1	Nikon D800E	36	Full Format	2999	96	25,6	14,3	2979
2	Nikon D800	36	Full Format	2599	95	25,3	14,4	2853
3	Nikon D600	24	Full Format	2190	94	25,1	14,2	2980
4	Phase One IQ180 Digital Back	81	Medium Format	32999	91	26,5	13,6	966
5	Nikon D4	16	Full Format	4999	89	24,7	13,1	2965
6	Phase One P65 Plus	60	Medium Format	30999	89	26	13	1158
7	Nikon D3X	24	Full Format	6689	88	24,7	13,7	1992
8	Phase One P40 Plus	40	Medium Format	15499	87	25,3	13	1307
9	Pentax 645D	41	Medium Format	7499	82	24,6	12,6	1262
10	Nikon D3s	12	Full Format	3495	82	23,5	12	3253
11	Pentax K5	16	APS-C	799	82	23,7	14,1	1162
12	Nikon D3200	24	APS-C	549	81	24,1	13,2	1131
13	Canon EOS 5D Mark III	23	Full Format	2990	81	24	11,7	2293
14	Sony NEX-7	24	APS-C	999	81	24,1	13,4	1016

* Prices are approximate, you need to contact the dealer to find out final price.

As we see 50% of the cameras within Top 14 are NIKON! Please also look on the Phase One and Pentax price tags compared with Nikon.

One thing that is worth to mention about the Canon 5D MKIII (place 13^th), they have an maximum ISO of 102.400, while e.g. the D600 “only” has up to ISO 25.600 – looks like a clean win for Canon when looking on the bragging tech specs. But when DXO really test the sensors highest ISO sensitivity to which your camera can be set while maintaining a high quality the D600 scores a 30% better result.

So, what do we learn from this? The specification on a paper is the same as assuming that the car with the speedometer that goes the highest, is the fastest….

You may read more details about the test: http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cameras/Camera-Sensor-Ratings

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