Olympus E-300 vs Pentax MX-1

Below is a in-depth overview of the Olympus E-300 and Pentax MX-1, former being a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Small Sensor Compact by competitors Olympus and Pentax. There is a considerable difference between the resolutions of the E-300 (8MP) and MX-1 (12MP) and the E-300 (Four Thirds) and MX-1 (1/1.7") boast totally different sensor dimensions.

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The E-300 was brought out 9 years before the MX-1 and that is quite a large difference as far as tech is concerned. Both of the cameras feature different body design with the Olympus E-300 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Pentax MX-1 being a Compact camera.

Before delving right into a full comparison, here is a short highlight of how the E-300 grades vs the MX-1 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-300 & Pentax MX-1. The entire galleries are available at Olympus E-300 Gallery & Pentax MX-1 Gallery.

If you are planning to lug around your camera, you'll need to factor its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-300 provides outside dimensions of 147mm x 85mm x 64mm (5.8" x 3.3" x 2.5") along with a weight of 624 grams (1.38 lbs) while the Pentax MX-1 has proportions of 122mm x 61mm x 51mm (4.8" x 2.4" x 2.0") having a weight of 391 grams (0.86 lbs).

Check out the Olympus E-300 and Pentax MX-1 in our brand new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will vary based on the lens you are utilizing at the time. Below is a front view dimension comparison of the E-300 and the MX-1.

Factoring in size and weight, the portability rating of the E-300 and MX-1 is 67 and 84 respectively.

Often, its hard to see the gap between sensor measurements purely by looking at technical specs. The visual underneath may give you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-300 and MX-1.

As you have seen, each of the cameras feature different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-300 because of its bigger sensor will make getting shallower depth of field simpler and the Pentax MX-1 will give you more detail having its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution will also make it easier to crop pictures way more aggressively. The older E-300 is going to be behind when it comes to sensor innovation.