Olympus XZ-2 iHS vs Sony HX300

Lets look closer at the Olympus XZ-2 iHS and Sony HX300, former is a Small Sensor Compact while the latter is a Small Sensor Superzoom by competitors Olympus and Sony. There exists a large gap between the image resolutions of the XZ-2 iHS (12MP) and HX300 (20MP) and the XZ-2 iHS (1/1.7") and HX300 (1/2.3") have totally different sensor sizing.

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The XZ-2 iHS was brought out 2 months prior to the HX300 and they are of a similar age. Both of the cameras feature different body design with the Olympus XZ-2 iHS being a Compact camera and the Sony HX300 being a SLR-like (bridge) camera.

Before getting straight to a thorough comparison, here is a quick summary of how the XZ-2 iHS scores versus the HX300 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Here is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus XZ-2 iHS & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus XZ-2 iHS Gallery & Sony HX300 Gallery.

When you are aiming to travel with your camera regularly, you'll need to factor its weight and volume. The Olympus XZ-2 iHS comes with outside dimensions of 113mm x 65mm x 48mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.9") having a weight of 346 grams (0.76 lbs) whilst the Sony HX300 has sizing of 130mm x 103mm x 93mm (5.1" x 4.1" x 3.7") accompanied by a weight of 623 grams (1.37 lbs).

Look at the Olympus XZ-2 iHS and Sony HX300 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will change depending on the lens you have chosen during that time. Following is a front view size comparison of the XZ-2 iHS against the HX300.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the XZ-2 iHS and HX300 is 85 and 63 respectively.

Typically, its difficult to see the difference between sensor dimensions simply by checking specifications. The picture here will offer you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the XZ-2 iHS and HX300.

To sum up, both of the cameras feature different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The XZ-2 iHS because of its bigger sensor will make getting shallow depth of field less difficult and the Sony HX300 will give more detail having its extra 8 Megapixels. Higher resolution will allow you to crop pictures way more aggressively.