Canon A490 vs Sony WX5

Its time to take a more detailed look at the Canon A490 and Sony WX5, both Small Sensor Compact digital cameras by competitors Canon and Sony. The image resolution of the A490 (10MP) and the WX5 (12MP) is fairly similar and both cameras offer the identical sensor size (1/2.3").

Photography Glossary

The A490 was unveiled 6 months earlier than the WX5 so they are both of a similar age. Both the cameras feature the same body design (Compact).

Before going right into a more detailed comparison, here is a brief overview of how the A490 matches up vs the WX5 with regard to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Canon PowerShot A490 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX5. The full galleries are viewable at Canon A490 Gallery & Sony WX5 Gallery.

If you're planning to lug around your camera frequently, you should factor its weight and volume. The Canon A490 has outer measurements of 94mm x 62mm x 31mm (3.7" x 2.4" x 1.2") and a weight of 175 grams (0.39 lbs) and the Sony WX5 has sizing of 92mm x 52mm x 22mm (3.6" x 2.0" x 0.9") accompanied by a weight of 146 grams (0.32 lbs).

Check the Canon A490 and Sony WX5 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an ILC will vary dependant on the lens you are using at the time. Here is a front view dimension comparison of the A490 compared to the WX5.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability score of the A490 and WX5 is 93 and 95 respectively.

More often than not, it is difficult to picture the gap between sensor measurements purely by reading specifications. The photograph here will help give you a far better sense of the sensor measurements in the A490 and WX5.

Plainly, each of these cameras come with the identical sensor size but different megapixels. You can anticipate the Sony WX5 to offer you more detail having an extra 2MP. Greater resolution will also enable you to crop pics a good deal more aggressively.