Both Olympus XZ-1 and Canon S95 have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Olympus XZ-1's sensor is 1/1.63-inch (8.07 x 5.56 mm ) and Canon S95's sensor is 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ).
Since Olympus XZ-1'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 Canon S95.
Below you can see the XZ-1 and S95 sensor size comparison.
Olympus XZ-1 and Canon S95 have almost the same sensor size, so neither of them has any significant advantage over the other in terms of providing control over depth of field when used with the 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 XZ-1 and Canon S95 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that S95 has a better overall score of 47, 13 points higher compared to XZ-1's score of 34.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Olympus XZ-1 |
34 |
18.8 bits |
10.4 Evs |
117 ISO |
Canon S95 |
47 |
20.4 bits |
11.3 Evs |
153 ISO |