Panasonic ZS100 has a
20.0MP 1″ (13.2 x 8.8 mm ) sized MOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor. On the other hand, Olympus XZ-1 has a
10.0MP 1/1.63-inch (8.07 x 5.56 mm ) sized CCD sensor and features TruePic V processor.
Panasonic ZS100's sensor provides 10MP more than Olympus XZ-1'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 ZS100 and XZ-1 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Panasonic ZS100 has a 2.6x Larger sensor area than Olympus XZ-1. 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 Panasonic ZS100 and Olympus XZ-1 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, ZS100 has scored 70, 36 points higher than XZ-1.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic ZS100 |
70 |
22.8 bits |
12.5 Evs |
559 ISO |
Olympus XZ-1 |
34 |
18.8 bits |
10.4 Evs |
117 ISO |