Rutile TiO2 (TiO2-NR) and ZnO (ZnO-NR) in nanorod microstructural forms are synthesized by hydrothermal route. The oxides are grown directly on fluorine doped SnO2 coated glass, and annealed in air (AA) and hydrogen (HA) atmosphere for 3 h at 450 °C. A detailed structural, optical, and microstructural study confirms the phase formation in the AA and stability in HA samples. EPR signal with g-values of ~1.99 and ~1.95 from TiO2-NR and ZnO-NR photoanodes respectively confirms the presence of oxygen vacancy (OV) related defects. The EPR signals are stronger in TiO2-NR-HA compared to TiO2-NR-AA and is absent in ZnO-NR-AA suggesting increased defect concentration on hydrogenation. Further this leads to two order increase in photoconductivity for hydrogenated TiO2-NR-HA and ZnO-NR-HA photoanodes when measured under 1 Sun illumination compared to AA photoanodes. Photovoltaic power conversion efficiency for both dye and Sb2S3 sensitized solar cells are found to increase by 2 to 3 times in hydrogenated ZnO-NR. In contrast, TiO2-NR show two-fold decrease in efficiency on hydrogenation. The efficiency change is consistent with the change in interface impedance, which increases for dye or Sb2S3 sensitized TiO2-NR-HA photoanode, whereas, decreases for sensitized ZnO-NR-HA photoanode. These studies show that despite of one to two to three order increase in photoconductivity, the sensitizer/photoanode interface impedance play a significant role in deciding the efficiency. © 2019 International Solar Energy Society