Olympus XZ-2 iHS has a
12.0MP 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ) sized CMOS sensor . On the other hand, Sony RX1R II has a
42.0MP Full frame (35.9 x 24 mm ) sized BSI-CMOS sensor and features BIONZ X processor.
Sony RX1R II's sensor provides 30MP more than Olympus XZ-2 iHS's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Sony RX1R II's sensor doesn't have an anti-alias (Low-Pass) filter. Removing anti-alias filter increases the sharpness and level of detail but at the same time, it increases the chance of moiré occurring in certain scenes.
Below you can see the XZ-2 iHS and RX1R II sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony RX1R II has a 20.8x Larger sensor area than Olympus XZ-2 iHS. 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
DxOMark is a benchmark that scientifically assesses image quality of camera sensors. It 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. Olympus XZ-2 iHS and Sony RX1R II sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that RX1R II has a better overall score of 97, 48 points higher compared to XZ-2 iHS's score of 49.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus XZ-2 iHS |
49 |
20.4 bits |
11.3 Evs |
216 ISO |
Sony RX1R II |
97 |
25.8 bits |
13.9 Evs |
3204 ISO |