Olympus E-PL1s vs Olympus TG-3

Its time to look a little more closely at the Olympus E-PL1s and Olympus TG-3, one is a Entry-Level Mirrorless and the other is a Waterproof and they are both sold by Olympus. There exists a sizeable gap between the image resolutions of the E-PL1s (12MP) and TG-3 (16MP) and the E-PL1s (Four Thirds) and TG-3 (1/2.3") feature different sensor dimensions.

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The E-PL1s was unveiled 4 years earlier than the TG-3 which is quite a large gap as far as technology is concerned. Both cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-PL1s being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Olympus TG-3 being a Compact camera.

Before we go straight into a step-by-step comparison, below is a concise summation of how the E-PL1s scores vs the TG-3 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

The following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus PEN E-PL1s and Olympus Tough TG-3. The full galleries are provided at Olympus E-PL1s Gallery and Olympus TG-3 Gallery.

If you're planning to travel with your camera often, you are going to need to think about its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-PL1s offers physical measurements of 115mm x 72mm x 42mm (4.5" x 2.8" x 1.7") with a weight of 334 grams (0.74 lbs) and the Olympus TG-3 has proportions of 112mm x 66mm x 31mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.2") and a weight of 247 grams (0.54 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus E-PL1s and Olympus TG-3 in the latest Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Bear in mind, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change dependant on the lens you are using at that moment. Following is the front view scale comparison of the E-PL1s against the TG-3.

Taking into consideration dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-PL1s and TG-3 is 86 and 90 respectively.

More often than not, its difficult to visualize the difference between sensor dimensions merely by looking at a spec sheet. The pic here may offer you a clearer sense of the sensor measurements in the E-PL1s and TG-3.

Clearly, both of those cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The E-PL1s using its larger sensor is going to make shooting shallow DOF simpler and the Olympus TG-3 will give more detail having an extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution will enable you to crop photos somewhat more aggressively. The more aged E-PL1s is going to be disadvantaged with regard to sensor technology.