Olympus E-500 vs Sony S950

Lets take a more detailed look at the Olympus E-500 and Sony S950, one being a Advanced DSLR and the latter is a Small Sensor Compact by competitors Olympus and Sony. The sensor resolution of the E-500 (8MP) and the S950 (10MP) is pretty close but the E-500 (Four Thirds) and S950 (1/2.3") come with totally different sensor size.

Photobucket discusses licensing 13 billion images with AI firms

The E-500 was announced 4 years before the S950 and that is a fairly large gap as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of the cameras come with different body type with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony S950 being a Compact camera.

Before going through a comprehensive comparison, below is a concise introduction of how the E-500 scores versus the S950 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

Below is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-500 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S950. The whole galleries are available at Olympus E-500 Gallery and Sony S950 Gallery.

If you are aiming to carry your camera, you will have to think about its weight and volume. The Olympus E-500 comes with exterior dimensions of 130mm x 95mm x 66mm (5.1" x 3.7" x 2.6") having a weight of 479 grams (1.06 lbs) while the Sony S950 has sizing of 93mm x 56mm x 24mm (3.7" x 2.2" x 0.9") having a weight of 167 grams (0.37 lbs).

Check the Olympus E-500 and Sony S950 in the latest Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will differ dependant on the lens you are utilizing at that moment. Below is the front view measurement comparison of the E-500 against the S950.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability grade of the E-500 and S950 is 70 and 94 respectively.

Often, it is difficult to envision the gap in sensor sizing only by viewing technical specs. The graphic underneath will provide you a much better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-500 and S950.

As you can tell, the two cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor sizing. The E-500 using its bigger sensor will make achieving shallower depth of field simpler and the Sony S950 will render extra detail with its extra 2MP. Higher resolution will make it easier to crop photographs somewhat more aggressively. The older E-500 will be behind with regard to sensor tech.