Both Panasonic ZS50 and Canon S120 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic ZS50's sensor is (1/2. ) and Canon S120's sensor is 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ).
Since Canon S120'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 Panasonic ZS50.
Below you can see the ZS50 and S120 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Canon S120 has a infx Larger sensor area than Panasonic ZS50. 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. Panasonic ZS50 and Canon S120 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that S120 has a better overall score of 56, 12 points higher compared to ZS50's score of 44.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic ZS50 |
44 |
20.0 bits |
11.2 Evs |
138 ISO |
Canon S120 |
56 |
21.3 bits |
11.9 Evs |
246 ISO |