Both Panasonic S1 IIE and Sony A77 II have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic S1 IIE's sensor is Full frame (35.6 x 23.8 mm ) and Sony A77 II's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ).
Since Panasonic S1 IIE'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 Sony A77 II.
Another difference between these two cameras is that Panasonic S1 IIE's sensor lacks anti-alias (Low-Pass) filter. Removing anti-alias filter increases the sharpness and level of detail but at the same time, it increases the chance of moiré occurring in certain scenes.
Below you can see the S1 IIE and A77 II sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Panasonic S1 IIE and Sony A77 II Cameras
As seen above, Panasonic S1 IIE has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Sony A77 II. 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 S1 IIE
or the
Sony A77 II ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(Full frame versus APS-C),
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.
