Olympus E-500 vs Sony NEX-7

Below, we are matching up the Olympus E-500 and Sony NEX-7, former is a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Advanced Mirrorless by manufacturers Olympus and Sony. There exists a large gap between the image resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and NEX-7 (24MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and NEX-7 (APS-C) feature totally different sensor dimensions.

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The E-500 was manufactured 7 years before the NEX-7 which is quite a serious difference as far as technology is concerned. Each of the cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony NEX-7 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going through a comprehensive comparison, below is a quick overview of how the E-500 scores vs the NEX-7 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Here is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus E-500 & Sony Alpha NEX-7. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Sony NEX-7 Gallery.

If you're going to travel with your camera regularly, you'll need to take into account its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-500 features 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) and the Sony NEX-7 has proportions of 120mm x 67mm x 43mm (4.7" x 2.6" x 1.7") having a weight of 400 grams (0.88 lbs).

Examine the Olympus E-500 and Sony NEX-7 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Always remember, the weight of an ILC will vary depending on the lens you select during that time. Underneath is the front view proportions comparison of the E-500 against the NEX-7.

Considering dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the E-500 and NEX-7 is 70 and 84 respectively.

Quite often, it's difficult to envision the gap between sensor dimensions merely by reading through a spec sheet. The image here may give you a much better sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and NEX-7.

As you can see, both of those cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The E-500 due to its tinier sensor will make achieving shallower depth of field harder and the Sony NEX-7 will give you more detail due to its extra 16 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also let you crop images somewhat more aggressively. The more aged E-500 is going to be behind in sensor technology.