Both Olympus E-M10 II and Pentax K-5 IIs have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Olympus E-M10 II's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Pentax K-5 IIs's sensor is APS-C (23.7 x 15.7 mm ).
Since Pentax K-5 IIs'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 Olympus E-M10 II.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Pentax K-5 IIs'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 E-M10 II and K-5 IIs sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Olympus E-M10 II and Pentax K-5 IIs Cameras
As seen above, Pentax K-5 IIs has a 1.7x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-M10 II. 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 E-M10 II and Pentax K-5 IIs sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that K-5 IIs has a better overall score of 82, 9 points higher compared to E-M10 II's score of 73.
Model
Overall
Color Depth
Dynamic Range
Low-light ISO
Olympus E-M10 II
73
23.1 bits
12.5 Evs
842 ISO
Pentax K-5 IIs
82
23.9 bits
14.1 Evs
1208 ISO
Sensor size sets the circle of confusion, so it drives how much depth of field each
of these bodies gives you at a given aperture. You can calculate it exactly for the
Olympus E-M10 II
or the
Pentax K-5 IIs ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(Four Thirds versus APS-C),
so compare them at the same framing rather than the same focal length.
Put the same focal length on the smaller sensor and it will show less depth of
field, not more, because it also crops tighter. The calculator shows the
full frame equivalent focal length for each body so you can match the framing.
