Olympus E-300 vs Panasonic S3

Its time to look more closely at the Olympus E-300 and Panasonic S3, former being a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Small Sensor Compact by rivals Olympus and Panasonic. There exists a considerable gap among the image resolutions of the E-300 (8MP) and S3 (14MP) and the E-300 (Four Thirds) and S3 (1/2.3") possess different sensor measurements.

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The E-300 was introduced 7 years earlier than the S3 and that is a fairly large difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Both of these cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-300 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Panasonic S3 being a Compact camera.

Before diving straight into a in depth comparison, below is a simple overview of how the E-300 scores vs the S3 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Below is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-300 & Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3. The whole galleries are available at Olympus E-300 Gallery & Panasonic S3 Gallery.

For those who are planning to lug around your camera regularly, you'll have to take into account its weight and size. The Olympus E-300 comes with outside dimensions of 147mm x 85mm x 64mm (5.8" x 3.3" x 2.5") accompanied by a weight of 624 grams (1.38 lbs) and the Panasonic S3 has specifications of 99mm x 59mm x 21mm (3.9" x 2.3" x 0.8") having a weight of 117 grams (0.26 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus E-300 and Panasonic S3 in our newest Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will differ depending on the lens you have at that time. Following is the front view proportions comparison of the E-300 and the S3.

Considering dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-300 and S3 is 67 and 96 respectively.

Normally, it is hard to visualize the difference in sensor measurements just by seeing a spec sheet. The visual below may give you a greater sense of the sensor sizes in the E-300 and S3.

Clearly, both the cameras posses different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-300 having a larger sensor is going to make shooting shallow DOF simpler and the Panasonic S3 will show more detail using its extra 6MP. Greater resolution will let you crop images somewhat more aggressively. The older E-300 will be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor technology.