Both Olympus E-PM1 and Pentax Q10 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Olympus E-PM1's sensor is Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) and Pentax Q10's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ).
Since Olympus E-PM1'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 Pentax Q10.
Below you can see the E-PM1 and Q10 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Olympus E-PM1 has a 8.0x Larger sensor area than Pentax Q10. 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 Olympus E-PM1 and Pentax Q10 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, E-PM1 has scored 52, 3 points higher than Q10.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus E-PM1 |
52 |
21.0 bits |
10.3 Evs |
499 ISO |
Pentax Q10 |
49 |
21.1 bits |
10.9 Evs |
183 ISO |