Panasonic LX7 has a
10.0MP 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor. On the other hand, Olympus E-PL7 has a
16.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VII processor.
Olympus E-PL7's sensor provides 6MP more than Panasonic LX7'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.
Below you can see the LX7 and E-PL7 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Olympus E-PL7 has a 5.4x Larger sensor area than Panasonic LX7. 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. Panasonic LX7 and Olympus E-PL7 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that E-PL7 has a better overall score of 72, 22 points higher compared to LX7's score of 50.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic LX7 |
50 |
20.7 bits |
11.7 Evs |
147 ISO |
Olympus E-PL7 |
72 |
22.7 bits |
12.4 Evs |
873 ISO |