Olympus XZ-1 vs Panasonic LZ20

Below is a in depth analysis of the Olympus XZ-1 vs Panasonic LZ20, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Small Sensor Superzoom by brands Olympus and Panasonic. There is a substantial difference between the resolutions of the XZ-1 (10MP) and LZ20 (16MP) and the XZ-1 (1/1.63") and LZ20 (1/2.3") come with totally different sensor size.

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The XZ-1 was unveiled 17 months before the LZ20 making the cameras a generation apart from each other. Both cameras come with different body type with the Olympus XZ-1 being a Compact camera and the Panasonic LZ20 being a SLR-like (bridge) camera.

Before getting in to a thorough comparison, below is a simple summary of how the XZ-1 scores vs the LZ20 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus XZ-1 & Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ20. The full galleries are provided at Olympus XZ-1 Gallery & Panasonic LZ20 Gallery.

For those who are planning to lug around your camera often, you will have to factor in its weight and proportions. The Olympus XZ-1 offers outer dimensions of 111mm x 65mm x 42mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.7") along with a weight of 275 grams (0.61 lbs) while the Panasonic LZ20 has measurements of 120mm x 76mm x 80mm (4.7" x 3.0" x 3.1") along with a weight of 499 grams (1.10 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus XZ-1 vs Panasonic LZ20 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an ILC will differ depending on the lens you are working with at that moment. Below is the front view over all size comparison of the XZ-1 vs the LZ20.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability grade of the XZ-1 and LZ20 is 88 and 71 respectively.

Usually, its difficult to envision the contrast between sensor measurements just by reading through technical specs. The visual below should give you a better sense of the sensor sizes in the XZ-1 and LZ20.

As you can tell, the two cameras posses different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The XZ-1 having a larger sensor will make achieving shallower DOF less difficult and the Panasonic LZ20 will give greater detail having an extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also let you crop photos somewhat more aggressively. The older XZ-1 is going to be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor tech.