Olympus E-500 vs Panasonic FH5

On this page, we will be looking at the Olympus E-500 vs Panasonic FH5, one being a Advanced DSLR and the latter is a Small Sensor Compact by manufacturers Olympus and Panasonic. There exists a huge gap between the image resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and FH5 (16MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and FH5 (1/2.3") posses totally different sensor dimensions.

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The E-500 was manufactured 6 years earlier than the FH5 and that is quite a significant gap as far as technology is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Panasonic FH5 being a Compact camera.

Before going right into a comprehensive comparison, here is a concise highlight of how the E-500 scores vs the FH5 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-500 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH5. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus E-500 Gallery and Panasonic FH5 Gallery.

In case you're intending to lug around your camera, you need to factor its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-500 offers outside dimensions of 130mm x 95mm x 66mm (5.1" x 3.7" x 2.6") and a weight of 479 grams (1.06 lbs) while the Panasonic FH5 has proportions of 94mm x 54mm x 19mm (3.7" x 2.1" x 0.7") with a weight of 121 grams (0.27 lbs).

See the Olympus E-500 vs Panasonic FH5 in the new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will vary depending on the lens you have at the time. Following is a front view sizing comparison of the E-500 and the FH5.

Factoring in dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-500 and FH5 is 70 and 96 respectively.

Typically, its tough to see the contrast between sensor measurements merely by going over technical specs. The graphic here might provide you a more clear sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and FH5.

As you can tell, both of the cameras provide different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The E-500 because of its bigger sensor will make getting shallow DOF simpler and the Panasonic FH5 will offer more detail due to its extra 8 Megapixels. Higher resolution will enable you to crop photographs more aggressively. The older E-500 is going to be behind when it comes to sensor technology.