Both Olympus E-PL5 and Olympus E-M5 II have 16.0 MP resolution sensors but Olympus E-PL5's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Olympus E-M5 II's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ).
Since Olympus E-M5 II'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-PL5.
Below you can see the E-PL5 and E-M5 Mark II sensor size comparison.
Olympus E-PL5 and Olympus E-M5 II 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. Olympus E-PL5 and Olympus E-M5 II sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that E-M5 Mark II has a better overall score of 73, 1 points higher compared to E-PL5's score of 72.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus E-PL5 |
72 |
22.8 bits |
12.3 Evs |
889 ISO |
Olympus E-M5 II |
73 |
23.0 bits |
12.4 Evs |
896 ISO |