Olympus E-500 vs Sony NEX-3N

In this article, we will be evaluating the Olympus E-500 versus Sony NEX-3N, former is a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by manufacturers Olympus and Sony. There exists a sizable gap among the resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and NEX-3N (16MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and NEX-3N (APS-C) use different sensor sizes.

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The E-500 was unveiled 8 years earlier than the NEX-3N which is a fairly significant difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Both cameras offer different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony NEX-3N being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before getting straight into a thorough comparison, below is a short synopsis of how the E-500 matches up vs the NEX-3N with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

The following is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-500 & Sony Alpha NEX-3N. The full galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Sony NEX-3N Gallery.

When you are going to travel with your camera, you need to factor its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 comes with external 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) and the Sony NEX-3N has sizing of 110mm x 62mm x 35mm (4.3" x 2.4" x 1.4") and a weight of 269 grams (0.59 lbs).

Contrast the Olympus E-500 versus Sony NEX-3N in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Always remember, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you have attached at that time. Here is the front view proportions comparison of the E-500 and the NEX-3N.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the E-500 and NEX-3N is 70 and 89 respectively.

Sometimes, its hard to visualize the gap in sensor dimensions only by checking out specs. The pic here should provide you a clearer sense of the sensor sizes in the E-500 and NEX-3N.

As you can plainly see, both of these cameras offer different megapixel count and different sensor dimensions. The E-500 using its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallower depth of field more difficult and the Sony NEX-3N will produce extra detail having an extra 8 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also enable you to crop pictures a little more aggressively. The more aged E-500 will be behind with regard to sensor tech.