Olympus E-500 vs Olympus E-P2

Below is a detailed analysis of the Olympus E-500 vs Olympus E-P2, former being a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Entry-Level Mirrorless and both of them are built by Olympus. There exists a substantial gap among the sensor resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and E-P2 (12MP) but they feature the exact same sensor measurements (Four Thirds).

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The E-500 was unveiled 5 years earlier than the E-P2 and that is a fairly big difference as far as camera technology is concerned. The two cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Olympus E-P2 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going through a comprehensive comparison, below is a short synopsis of how the E-500 scores versus the E-P2 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-500 & Olympus PEN E-P2. The full galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Olympus E-P2 Gallery.

For those who are going to lug around your camera, you will want to factor its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 enjoys outer dimensions of 130mm x 95mm x 66mm (5.1" x 3.7" x 2.6") accompanied by a weight of 479 grams (1.06 lbs) while the Olympus E-P2 has sizing of 121mm x 70mm x 36mm (4.8" x 2.8" x 1.4") having a weight of 355 grams (0.78 lbs).

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Take into account, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you are using at the time. Following is the front view scale comparison of the E-500 and the E-P2.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the E-500 and E-P2 is 70 and 86 respectively.

More often than not, it's tough to visualize the difference in sensor measurements only by seeing technical specs. The photograph underneath will offer you a clearer sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and E-P2.

As you can tell, both of the cameras posses the exact same sensor measurements but different MP. You can expect to see the Olympus E-P2 to show extra detail having an extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also make it easier to crop images somewhat more aggressively. The older E-500 will be disadvantaged with regard to sensor technology.