Panasonic ZS1 vs Pentax K-500

Below is a in-depth comparison of the Panasonic ZS1 versus Pentax K-500, one being a Small Sensor Superzoom and the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by companies Panasonic and Pentax. There is a huge difference among the sensor resolutions of the ZS1 (10MP) and K-500 (16MP) and the ZS1 (1/2.5") and K-500 (APS-C) come with totally different sensor measurements.

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The ZS1 was brought out 5 years prior to the K-500 and that is a fairly significant gap as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of these cameras offer different body type with the Panasonic ZS1 being a Compact camera and the Pentax K-500 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before getting through a detailed comparison, below is a short synopsis of how the ZS1 grades vs the K-500 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a sample of the gallery pictures for Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 and Pentax K-500. The entire galleries are available at Panasonic ZS1 Gallery and Pentax K-500 Gallery.

In case you're going to lug around your camera regularly, you need to take into account its weight and measurements. The Panasonic ZS1 comes with external measurements of 103mm x 60mm x 33mm (4.1" x 2.4" x 1.3") with a weight of 229 grams (0.50 lbs) whilst the Pentax K-500 has proportions of 130mm x 97mm x 71mm (5.1" x 3.8" x 2.8") accompanied by a weight of 646 grams (1.42 lbs).

Analyze the Panasonic ZS1 versus Pentax K-500 in the all new Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change based on the lens you have chosen at that time. The following is the front view scale comparison of the ZS1 against the K-500.

Looking at size and weight, the portability grade of the ZS1 and K-500 is 91 and 64 respectively.

Usually, it is very tough to visualise the gap in sensor measurements purely by going through specifications. The graphic here will help provide you a much better sense of the sensor sizing in the ZS1 and K-500.

Plainly, the two cameras offer different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The ZS1 because of its smaller sensor will make getting bokeh trickier and the Pentax K-500 will provide more detail having its extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also make it easier to crop images a little more aggressively. The older ZS1 will be behind when it comes to sensor tech.