Both Casio EX-ZR10 and Olympus E-PL1 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Casio EX-ZR10's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ) and Olympus E-PL1's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Olympus E-PL1'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 Casio EX-ZR10.
Below you can see the EX-ZR10 and E-PL1 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Olympus E-PL1 has a 8.0x Larger sensor area than Casio EX-ZR10. 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.