Olympus XZ-1 vs Samsung NX20

Its time to examine more closely at the Olympus XZ-1 and Samsung NX20, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the latter is a Advanced Mirrorless by companies Olympus and Samsung. There exists a considerable gap between the image resolutions of the XZ-1 (10MP) and NX20 (20MP) and the XZ-1 (1/1.63") and NX20 (APS-C) come with different sensor dimensions.

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The XZ-1 was announced 15 months prior to the NX20 which makes the cameras a generation apart from one another. Both of the cameras come with different body type with the Olympus XZ-1 being a Compact camera and the Samsung NX20 being a SLR-style mirrorless camera.

Before delving straight into a in-depth comparison, below is a concise synopsis of how the XZ-1 scores vs the NX20 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery photos for Olympus XZ-1 & Samsung NX20. The whole galleries are viewable at Olympus XZ-1 Gallery & Samsung NX20 Gallery.

If you are going to lug around your camera often, you will want to factor its weight and size. The Olympus XZ-1 has outer measurements of 111mm x 65mm x 42mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.7") with a weight of 275 grams (0.61 lbs) whilst the Samsung NX20 has specifications of 122mm x 90mm x 40mm (4.8" x 3.5" x 1.6") with a weight of 341 grams (0.75 lbs).

Check the Olympus XZ-1 and Samsung NX20 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an ILC will change depending on the lens you are utilising at that time. Below is the front view scale comparison of the XZ-1 and the NX20.

Considering dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the XZ-1 and NX20 is 88 and 83 respectively.

Normally, it is very difficult to picture the difference between sensor measurements purely by looking at technical specs. The visual underneath may provide you a stronger sense of the sensor sizing in the XZ-1 and NX20.

As you can tell, the two cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The XZ-1 having a tinier sensor is going to make getting bokeh more difficult and the Samsung NX20 will give more detail with its extra 10 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also make it easier to crop photographs somewhat more aggressively. The older XZ-1 is going to be disadvantaged in sensor tech.