Olympus E-M1 vs Pentax P80

On this page, we are looking at the Olympus E-M1 vs Pentax P80, one is a Pro Mirrorless and the other is a Small Sensor Compact by companies Olympus and Pentax. There is a sizeable difference between the image resolutions of the E-M1 (16MP) and P80 (12MP) and the E-M1 (Four Thirds) and P80 (1/2.3") posses different sensor sizing.

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The E-M1 was manufactured 4 years after the P80 which is quite a large gap as far as tech is concerned. The two cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-M1 being a SLR-style mirrorless camera and the Pentax P80 being a Compact camera.

Before getting into a comprehensive comparison, here is a concise highlight of how the E-M1 matches up versus the P80 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Below is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Pentax Optio P80. The entire galleries are provided at Olympus E-M1 Gallery and Pentax P80 Gallery.

For anyone who is intending to travel with your camera regularly, you need to take into account its weight and volume. The Olympus E-M1 has got outside dimensions of 130mm x 94mm x 63mm (5.1" x 3.7" x 2.5") having a weight of 497 grams (1.10 lbs) whilst the Pentax P80 has sizing of 102mm x 59mm x 25mm (4.0" x 2.3" x 1.0") along with a weight of 125 grams (0.28 lbs).

Check the Olympus E-M1 vs Pentax P80 in the new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change based on the lens you use at the time. Here is a front view sizing comparison of the E-M1 vs the P80.

Taking into consideration size and weight, the portability score of the E-M1 and P80 is 71 and 95 respectively.

Often, its hard to visualize the contrast between sensor dimensions simply by reading a spec sheet. The picture here will help offer you a far better sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-M1 and P80.

As you can see, both the cameras have different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The E-M1 because of its larger sensor is going to make getting shallow depth of field simpler and the Olympus E-M1 will offer more detail due to its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will also allow you to crop pics a bit more aggressively. The more modern E-M1 provides an advantage when it comes to sensor innovation.