Olympus VG-145 vs Panasonic ZS1

Below, we are looking at the Olympus VG-145 vs Panasonic ZS1, former being a Ultracompact while the other is a Small Sensor Superzoom by competitors Olympus and Panasonic. There exists a substantial gap between the image resolutions of the VG-145 (14MP) and ZS1 (10MP) and the VG-145 (1/2.3") and ZS1 (1/2.5") enjoy different sensor sizing.

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The VG-145 was announced 2 years later than the ZS1 and that is quite a big difference as far as technology is concerned. Both the cameras come with different body type with the Olympus VG-145 being a Ultracompact camera and the Panasonic ZS1 being a Compact camera.

Before getting straight into a in depth comparison, below is a quick introduction of how the VG-145 grades against the ZS1 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus VG-145 & Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1. The whole galleries are viewable at Olympus VG-145 Gallery & Panasonic ZS1 Gallery.

For anyone who is going to lug around your camera often, you will want to take into account its weight and dimensions. The Olympus VG-145 comes with external measurements of 96mm x 57mm x 19mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.7") along with a weight of 120 grams (0.26 lbs) and the Panasonic ZS1 has dimensions of 103mm x 60mm x 33mm (4.1" x 2.4" x 1.3") with a weight of 229 grams (0.50 lbs).

See the Olympus VG-145 vs Panasonic ZS1 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you are employing at that time. Following is the front view scale comparison of the VG-145 vs the ZS1.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the VG-145 and ZS1 is 96 and 91 respectively.

Quite often, its tough to imagine the gap between sensor measurements purely by reading specifications. The photograph below will help provide you a better sense of the sensor measurements in the VG-145 and ZS1.

Plainly, each of these cameras posses different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The VG-145 with its larger sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF less difficult and the Olympus VG-145 will deliver more detail with its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution will make it easier to crop photos somewhat more aggressively. The more modern VG-145 provides an edge with regard to sensor innovation.