Both Sony A6500 and Panasonic S1 II have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony A6500's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) and Panasonic S1 II's sensor is Full frame (35.6 x 23.8 mm ).
Since Panasonic S1 II'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 A6500.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Panasonic S1 II's sensor doesn't have an 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 A6500 and S1 II sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Sony A6500 and Panasonic S1 II Cameras
As seen above, Panasonic S1 II has a 2.3x Larger sensor area than Sony A6500. 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
Sony A6500
or the
Panasonic S1 II ,
including hyperfocal distance.
One thing to watch when comparing these two: they have different sensor sizes
(APS-C versus Full frame),
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.
