Both Panasonic LX3 and Olympus 6000 have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic LX3's sensor is 1/1.63-inch (8.07 x 5.56 mm ) and Olympus 6000's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ).
Since Panasonic LX3'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 6000.
Below you can see the LX3 and 6000 sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Panasonic LX3 and Olympus 6000 Cameras
As seen above, Panasonic LX3 has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Olympus 6000. 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.
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
Panasonic LX3
or the
Olympus 6000 ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(1/1.63-inch versus 1/2.3-inch),
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.
