Olympus E-500 vs Sony H20

Its time to take a deeper look at the Olympus E-500 and Sony H20, former being a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Small Sensor Compact by brands Olympus and Sony. The sensor resolution of the E-500 (8MP) and the H20 (10MP) is relatively comparable but the E-500 (Four Thirds) and H20 (1/2.3") provide different sensor measurements.

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The E-500 was manufactured 4 years prior to the H20 and that is a fairly big difference as far as camera technology is concerned. The two cameras feature different body design with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony H20 being a Compact camera.

Before delving right into a step-by-step comparison, here is a brief summary of how the E-500 matches up against the H20 with regard to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a preview of the gallery photos for Olympus E-500 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20. The entire galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Sony H20 Gallery.

In case you're intending to lug around your camera, you will want to think about its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 has got 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) whilst the Sony H20 has sizing of 107mm x 69mm x 47mm (4.2" x 2.7" x 1.9") having a weight of 250 grams (0.55 lbs).

Contrast the Olympus E-500 and Sony H20 in our newest Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you are utilizing at the time. Following is a front view size comparison of the E-500 vs the H20.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the E-500 and H20 is 70 and 87 respectively.

Typically, it is hard to imagine the contrast in sensor measurements simply by going through technical specs. The graphic below might provide you a better sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and H20.

As you can tell, each of the cameras feature different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-500 due to its bigger sensor is going to make shooting shallow DOF simpler and the Sony H20 will show greater detail due to its extra 2 Megapixels. Higher resolution will enable you to crop pictures way more aggressively. The older E-500 will be disadvantaged in sensor technology.