Olympus E-500 vs Olympus 7040

Let's look a bit more in depth at the Olympus E-500 versus Olympus 7040, former being a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Small Sensor Compact and both of them are created by Olympus. There exists a noticeable gap among the resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and 7040 (14MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and 7040 (1/2.3") posses different sensor sizes.

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The E-500 was revealed 5 years earlier than the 7040 and that is a fairly sizable difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Both cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Olympus 7040 being a Compact camera.

Before delving into a comprehensive comparison, here is a simple overview of how the E-500 scores against the 7040 for portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery photos for Olympus E-500 & Olympus Stylus 7040. The full galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Olympus 7040 Gallery.

When you are planning to lug around your camera often, you'll have to take into account its weight and proportions. The Olympus E-500 has got outer dimensions of 130mm x 95mm x 66mm (5.1" x 3.7" x 2.6") having a weight of 479 grams (1.06 lbs) and the Olympus 7040 has measurements of 95mm x 56mm x 26mm (3.7" x 2.2" x 1.0") with a weight of 144 grams (0.32 lbs).

Compare the Olympus E-500 versus Olympus 7040 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Keep in mind, the weight of an ILC will vary based on the lens you have chosen at that moment. Following is a front view physical size comparison of the E-500 against the 7040.

Considering dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the E-500 and 7040 is 70 and 95 respectively.

More often than not, its difficult to picture the gap in sensor measurements just by looking through specifications. The visual here will help give you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-500 and 7040.

To sum up, each of these cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-500 having a bigger sensor is going to make achieving shallow depth of field easier and the Olympus 7040 will provide you with greater detail because of its extra 6 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also enable you to crop photographs more aggressively. The older E-500 will be behind with regard to sensor technology.