Olympus XZ-1 vs Panasonic GX7

Below, we are comparing the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic GX7, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Advanced Mirrorless by rivals Olympus and Panasonic. There exists a large gap between the sensor resolutions of the XZ-1 (10MP) and GX7 (16MP) and the XZ-1 (1/1.63") and GX7 (Four Thirds) feature totally different sensor size.

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The XZ-1 was introduced 3 years earlier than the GX7 and that is quite a serious difference as far as technology is concerned. Each of these cameras come with different body type with the Olympus XZ-1 being a Compact camera and the Panasonic GX7 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going in to a full comparison, below is a quick summary of how the XZ-1 scores vs the GX7 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus XZ-1 & Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7. The whole galleries are available at Olympus XZ-1 Gallery & Panasonic GX7 Gallery.

When you are planning to lug around your camera frequently, you should take into account its weight and dimensions. The Olympus XZ-1 offers outside dimensions of 111mm x 65mm x 42mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.7") having a weight of 275 grams (0.61 lbs) and the Panasonic GX7 has dimensions of 123mm x 71mm x 55mm (4.8" x 2.8" x 2.2") with a weight of 402 grams (0.89 lbs).

See the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic GX7 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you have at that time. Here is the front view physical size comparison of the XZ-1 versus the GX7.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the XZ-1 and GX7 is 88 and 81 respectively.

Quite often, its difficult to envision the difference between sensor measurements simply by reading through specs. The photograph here will give you a better sense of the sensor sizes in the XZ-1 and GX7.

As you can plainly see, each of the cameras posses different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The XZ-1 with its tinier sensor will make getting shallower DOF trickier and the Panasonic GX7 will give greater detail using its extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also let you crop pics somewhat more aggressively. The older XZ-1 is going to be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor technology.