Olympus E-500 vs Pentax W80

Its time to take a closer look at the Olympus E-500 versus Pentax W80, former is a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Small Sensor Compact by manufacturers Olympus and Pentax. There is a large difference among the resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and W80 (12MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and W80 (1/2.3") feature different sensor sizes.

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The E-500 was introduced 4 years earlier than the W80 which is a fairly serious difference as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of these cameras offer different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Pentax W80 being a Compact camera.

Before going straight into a detailed comparison, below is a concise highlight of how the E-500 grades vs the W80 with regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Here is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-500 & Pentax Optio W80. The whole galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Pentax W80 Gallery.

For those who are aiming to travel with your camera, you will need to take into account its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 offers physical 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) whilst the Pentax W80 has sizing of 100mm x 56mm x 25mm (3.9" x 2.2" x 1.0") along with a weight of 156 grams (0.34 lbs).

Check the Olympus E-500 versus Pentax W80 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an ILC will differ dependant on the lens you have attached during that time. Here is the front view measurements comparison of the E-500 versus the W80.

Taking into consideration size and weight, the portability rating of the E-500 and W80 is 70 and 94 respectively.

Generally, its difficult to imagine the difference in sensor dimensions just by going through specs. The picture below will help give you a much better sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and W80.

As you can plainly see, both the cameras offer different resolutions and different sensor dimensions. The E-500 with its larger sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF easier and the Pentax W80 will show greater detail using its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also enable you to crop images a little more aggressively. The more aged E-500 will be behind when it comes to sensor tech.