Both Panasonic GX1 and Panasonic GX85 have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic GX1's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Panasonic GX85's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Panasonic GX85'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 Panasonic GX1.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Panasonic GX85'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 GX1 and GX85 sensor size comparison.
Panasonic GX1 and Panasonic GX85 have the same sensor sizes so they will provide same level of control over the depth of field when used with 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. Panasonic GX1 and Panasonic GX85 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that GX85 has a better overall score of 71, 16 points higher compared to GX1's score of 55.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic GX1 |
55 |
20.8 bits |
10.6 Evs |
703 ISO |
Panasonic GX85 |
71 |
22.9 bits |
12.6 Evs |
662 ISO |