Olympus E-300 vs Sony H20

Lets look much closer at the Olympus E-300 and Sony H20, former being a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Small Sensor Compact by companies Olympus and Sony. The image resolution of the E-300 (8MP) and the H20 (10MP) is fairly well matched but the E-300 (Four Thirds) and H20 (1/2.3") have totally different sensor sizes.

Photography Glossary

The E-300 was announced 5 years before the H20 and that is quite a large difference as far as technology is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-300 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony H20 being a Compact camera.

Before delving right into a full comparison, here is a simple view of how the E-300 scores versus the H20 in relation to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus E-300 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20. The whole galleries are available at Olympus E-300 Gallery & Sony H20 Gallery.

For anyone who is intending to lug around your camera regularly, you're going to have to factor its weight and volume. The Olympus E-300 offers physical dimensions of 147mm x 85mm x 64mm (5.8" x 3.3" x 2.5") and a weight of 624 grams (1.38 lbs) and the Sony H20 has sizing of 107mm x 69mm x 47mm (4.2" x 2.7" x 1.9") and a weight of 250 grams (0.55 lbs).

Check out the Olympus E-300 and Sony H20 in our newest Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will vary dependant on the lens you have at that time. Here is a front view proportions comparison of the E-300 and the H20.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the E-300 and H20 is 67 and 87 respectively.

Quite often, its tough to see the gap between sensor measurements merely by checking specs. The graphic here may offer you a clearer sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-300 and H20.

As you can plainly see, each of the cameras provide different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-300 with its larger sensor will make achieving shallower DOF easier and the Sony H20 will give you greater detail with its extra 2 Megapixels. Greater resolution will help you crop pics more aggressively. The older E-300 is going to be disadvantaged in sensor technology.