Olympus VR-340 vs Pentax Q10

Below is a thorough review of the Olympus VR-340 versus Pentax Q10, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by rivals Olympus and Pentax. There exists a noticeable gap between the image resolutions of the VR-340 (16MP) and Q10 (12MP) but both cameras provide the same sensor sizes (1/2.3").

Pentax 17 Pre-Orders Outperform Expectations by a Landslide

The VR-340 was brought out 8 months before the Q10 which means that they are both of a similar age. Both the cameras have different body design with the Olympus VR-340 being a Compact camera and the Pentax Q10 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before we go right into a full comparison, here is a concise view of how the VR-340 scores vs the Q10 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus VR-340 & Pentax Q10. The entire galleries are available at Olympus VR-340 Gallery & Pentax Q10 Gallery.

For those who are intending to lug around your camera often, you will have to factor its weight and size. The Olympus VR-340 enjoys outer measurements of 96mm x 57mm x 19mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.7") and a weight of 125 grams (0.28 lbs) and the Pentax Q10 has specifications of 102mm x 58mm x 34mm (4.0" x 2.3" x 1.3") and a weight of 200 grams (0.44 lbs).

Look at the Olympus VR-340 versus Pentax Q10 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you select at the time. Below is a front view size comparison of the VR-340 compared to the Q10.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the VR-340 and Q10 is 96 and 92 respectively.

Quite often, it's hard to visualise the gap between sensor measurements simply by going over specifications. The photograph below should give you a stronger sense of the sensor measurements in the VR-340 and Q10.

To sum up, each of the cameras have the same sensor dimensions but not the same resolution. You can expect to see the Olympus VR-340 to offer more detail having its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also make it easier to crop images a bit more aggressively. The older VR-340 is going to be behind when it comes to sensor technology.