Olympus E-420 vs Sony A550

Let's look a little more in depth at the Olympus E-420 and Sony A550, both Entry-Level DSLR cameras by companies Olympus and Sony. There is a substantial difference among the resolutions of the E-420 (10MP) and A550 (14MP) and the E-420 (Four Thirds) and A550 (APS-C) posses different sensor size.

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The E-420 was released 17 months prior to the A550 making them a generation apart from each other. Each of these cameras have the same body design (Compact SLR).

Before going right into a full comparison, here is a quick view of how the E-420 grades versus the A550 for portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-420 & Sony Alpha DSLR-A550. The complete galleries are viewable at Olympus E-420 Gallery & Sony A550 Gallery.

For those who are intending to lug around your camera often, you'll have to factor in its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-420 comes with exterior dimensions of 130mm x 91mm x 53mm (5.1" x 3.6" x 2.1") having a weight of 426 grams (0.94 lbs) while the Sony A550 has proportions of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") accompanied by a weight of 632 grams (1.39 lbs).

Look at the Olympus E-420 and Sony A550 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will differ dependant on the lens you use at the time. Following is a front view physical size comparison of the E-420 vs the A550.

Factoring in size and weight, the portability grade of the E-420 and A550 is 77 and 63 respectively.

Oftentimes, it's hard to picture the contrast in sensor measurements simply by checking out a spec sheet. The visual underneath should give you a much better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-420 and A550.

Clearly, each of the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-420 due to its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF harder and the Sony A550 will provide more detail as a result of its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also enable you to crop images a bit more aggressively. The older E-420 will be behind in sensor innovation.