its a 1.7 sensor and is a ccd rather cmos design chosen because of its better handeling of noise the camera was designed to be a pros companion ans its iq at iso 80 to 200 is astonishing
someone on this thread mentioned the luminous landscape review , which , i think explains this cameras niche well.
in my opinion, on well exposed images you would find it near impossible to tell a print made from this machine from one made with my ep1 or gf1 at prints up to 12 x 16 printing larger, of course , would expose the clear superiority of the m4\3 sensor over the excellent but smaller sensor of the compact.
i have often wondered why a 2.8 - 3.5 18 -45 lens or something else fast has not been offered in micro 43
they dont have a clue what people want or need