Olympus E-420 vs Pentax RZ18

Below is a extensive overview of the Olympus E-420 vs Pentax RZ18, one being a Entry-Level DSLR and the latter is a Small Sensor Superzoom by companies Olympus and Pentax. There exists a huge gap among the image resolutions of the E-420 (10MP) and RZ18 (16MP) and the E-420 (Four Thirds) and RZ18 (1/2.3") use different sensor sizing.

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The E-420 was released 4 years earlier than the RZ18 and that is a fairly significant gap as far as camera technology is concerned. Both cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-420 being a Compact SLR camera and the Pentax RZ18 being a Compact camera.

Before going through a thorough comparison, below is a quick highlight of how the E-420 scores versus the RZ18 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Below is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-420 and Pentax Optio RZ18. The complete galleries are provided at Olympus E-420 Gallery and Pentax RZ18 Gallery.

For anybody who is going to lug around your camera, you should think about its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-420 features external measurements of 130mm x 91mm x 53mm (5.1" x 3.6" x 2.1") and a weight of 426 grams (0.94 lbs) whilst the Pentax RZ18 has proportions of 97mm x 61mm x 33mm (3.8" x 2.4" x 1.3") accompanied by a weight of 178 grams (0.39 lbs).

See the Olympus E-420 vs Pentax RZ18 in the new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are employing at the time. Here is the front view over all size comparison of the E-420 against the RZ18.

Factoring in dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the E-420 and RZ18 is 77 and 92 respectively.

More often than not, it's difficult to picture the contrast in sensor measurements purely by seeing technical specs. The graphic underneath will help provide you a greater sense of the sensor measurements in the E-420 and RZ18.

As you have seen, both of these cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-420 due to its bigger sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF simpler and the Pentax RZ18 will show greater detail as a result of its extra 6 Megapixels. Higher resolution will also help you crop photographs somewhat more aggressively. The older E-420 will be disadvantaged in sensor innovation.