Camera Comparison

How to Use the Camera Comparison Tool

1. 1Open both bodies' specification pages and enter the same row for each — the template loads type, sensor format, megapixels, lens mount, maximum video, stabilization, ISO range, burst rate, weight, battery life and price.
2. 2Put the lens mount row first in your own reading order. It is the decision with the longest time horizon, because it determines which lenses you can use for the next decade.
3. 3Compare sensor format against total system weight together. A larger sensor usually arrives with larger lenses, so body weight alone understates what you carry.
4. 4Add rows for weather sealing, card slots or viewfinder specifications only where both manufacturers publish them — a row with one value is a data gap, not a difference.
5. 5Where the tool shows a missing value, read the manufacturer's own page before assuming the feature is absent.

Sensor Format, Resolution and What They Trade

Sensor format sets the depth of field and low-light envelope; megapixels set how far you can crop. At a given price and body size they trade against each other, which is why neither row works as a ranking on its own.

Resolution is only comparable at the same format. Twenty-four megapixels on a smaller sensor and twenty-four on a larger one produce different files, different cropping behaviour and different lens requirements — the number alone tells you very little.

Where a manufacturer publishes the sensor format and resolution but not the underlying details, we compare the published fields and leave the rest alone. We do not infer dynamic range, colour depth or high-ISO performance from the specification sheet, because we do not run those tests.

Video Rows Against Stills Rows

Video pulls the comparison toward maximum resolution and frame rate, recording limits, crop factors in video mode, stabilization and the microphone and headphone jacks. Stills pull toward burst rate, autofocus coverage and viewfinder specifications. If you shoot both, the interesting rows are the compromises each body makes.

Recording limits are easy to miss and expensive to discover: a body that records 4K for a fixed number of minutes before stopping is a different tool from one without a limit, even when the resolution and frame rate match.

Crop in video mode changes the effective field of view, so the same lens frames differently between modes. Where a manufacturer publishes the crop, enter it as its own row; where they do not, leave it blank rather than estimating.

Carrying and Power in Practice

Body weight with and without a battery, plus the weight of the lenses you actually need, is the honest portability figure. A body plus two lenses is a different proposition from a pocketable compact, whatever the sensor size says.

Battery life is a shot count under each manufacturer's standard test. It compares consistently enough between bodies, but real-world figures are always lower — use it to rank candidates, not to plan a day.

Card slot count and type decide how much you can shoot before offloading and whether you can record redundancy at once. On video-focused bodies, the full-size versus mini port question decides whether you work with adapters.