Olympus E-500 vs Panasonic ZS50

Below is a extensive comparison of the Olympus E-500 and Panasonic ZS50, former being a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Small Sensor Superzoom by companies Olympus and Panasonic. There is a noticeable difference between the resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and ZS50 (12MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and ZS50 (1/2.3") use different sensor measurements.

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The E-500 was released 10 years before the ZS50 and that is quite a sizable difference as far as tech is concerned. Each of the cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Panasonic ZS50 being a Compact camera.

Before getting through a in-depth comparison, below is a simple summation of how the E-500 scores versus the ZS50 in regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-500 & Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50. The complete galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Panasonic ZS50 Gallery.

For those who are planning to lug around your camera regularly, you are going to need to take into account its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 offers outside 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 Panasonic ZS50 has sizing of 111mm x 65mm x 34mm (4.4" x 2.6" x 1.3") and a weight of 243 grams (0.54 lbs).

Take a look at the Olympus E-500 and Panasonic ZS50 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you are using during that time. Following is the front view dimensions comparison of the E-500 versus the ZS50.

Using size and weight, the portability score of the E-500 and ZS50 is 70 and 90 respectively.

Generally, it's tough to imagine the contrast between sensor measurements purely by looking at technical specs. The graphic below should give you a more clear sense of the sensor sizes in the E-500 and ZS50.

As you can tell, each of the cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-500 because of its bigger sensor is going to make getting shallow depth of field less difficult and the Panasonic ZS50 will give you extra detail as a result of its extra 4MP. Higher resolution can also let you crop shots somewhat more aggressively. The older E-500 is going to be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor technology.