Both Canon S120 and Olympus E-600 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Canon S120's sensor is 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ) and Olympus E-600's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Olympus E-600's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Canon S120.
Below you can see the S120 and E-600 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Olympus E-600 has a 5.4x Larger sensor area than Canon S120. 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
Both Canon S120 and Olympus E-600 sensors have been tested by DxoMark. DxoMark 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. Of the two cameras that we are comparing, S120 has scored 56, 1 points higher than E-600.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon S120 |
56 |
21.3 bits |
11.9 Evs |
246 ISO |
Olympus E-600 |
55 |
21.5 bits |
10.3 Evs |
541 ISO |