Olympus PEN-F vs Olympus SZ-12

On this page, we are looking at the Olympus PEN-F and Olympus SZ-12, former is a Advanced Mirrorless while the other is a Small Sensor Superzoom and both of them are manufactured by Olympus. There exists a sizable gap among the sensor resolutions of the PEN-F (20MP) and SZ-12 (14MP) and the PEN-F (Four Thirds) and SZ-12 (1/2.3") posses totally different sensor dimensions.

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The PEN-F was brought out 4 years after the SZ-12 which is a fairly significant difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Each of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus PEN-F being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Olympus SZ-12 being a Compact camera.

Before going right into a in depth comparison, here is a quick summary of how the PEN-F matches up versus the SZ-12 with regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

The following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus PEN-F & Olympus SZ-12. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus PEN-F Gallery & Olympus SZ-12 Gallery.

For those who are intending to travel with your camera regularly, you're going to have to factor in its weight and volume. The Olympus PEN-F comes with exterior measurements of 125mm x 72mm x 37mm (4.9" x 2.8" x 1.5") along with a weight of 427 grams (0.94 lbs) while the Olympus SZ-12 has sizing of 106mm x 69mm x 40mm (4.2" x 2.7" x 1.6") accompanied by a weight of 226 grams (0.50 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus PEN-F and Olympus SZ-12 in our brand new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will change based on the lens you are utilising at that time. Underneath is a front view overall size comparison of the PEN-F versus the SZ-12.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the PEN-F and SZ-12 is 84 and 89 respectively.

Sometimes, its difficult to visualise the contrast in sensor dimensions only by looking through a spec sheet. The pic below may offer you a more clear sense of the sensor sizing in the PEN-F and SZ-12.

As you can see, both the cameras provide different megapixel count and different sensor dimensions. The PEN-F because of its larger sensor will make achieving shallow DOF less difficult and the Olympus PEN-F will render more detail having its extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also make it easier to crop images more aggressively. The more recent PEN-F will have an edge when it comes to sensor innovation.