Comparing the NEX-C3 and NEX-5N files...

Several people suggested to me that the NEX-5N uses a different sensor than the NEX-C3, and I set out to test this further for myself.

I processed some of the Imaging-Resource RAW files using Raw Photo Processor (Mac only, latest beta version) and found that the NEX-C3 and NEX-5N files are very similar but not the same. They are nearly identical at most ISO values but differ a bit at the highest ISOs. Here are some representative 100% crops at ISO 6,400 and 12,800:

The ISO 12,800 crops in particular make me wonder whether there is some subtle additional on-chip smoothing with the NEX-5N that isn't being applied to the NEX-C3 files.

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