Olympus E-500 vs Sony W380

Lets look a little more in depth at the Olympus E-500 and Sony W380, former being a Advanced DSLR while the other is a Ultracompact by rivals Olympus and Sony. There is a sizable difference among the resolutions of the E-500 (8MP) and W380 (14MP) and the E-500 (Four Thirds) and W380 (1/2.3") provide different sensor sizing.

Photobucket discusses licensing 13 billion images with AI firms

The E-500 was released 5 years before the W380 and that is a fairly significant difference as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of the cameras feature different body design with the Olympus E-500 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony W380 being a Ultracompact camera.

Before going straight to a in-depth comparison, here is a simple view of how the E-500 scores against the W380 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus E-500 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W380. The complete galleries are viewable at Olympus E-500 Gallery & Sony W380 Gallery.

For anyone who is aiming to lug around your camera often, you'll have to think about its weight and proportions. The Olympus E-500 has 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) while the Sony W380 has measurements of 91mm x 52mm x 20mm (3.6" x 2.0" x 0.8") with a weight of 117 grams (0.26 lbs).

Compare the Olympus E-500 and Sony W380 in our newest Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will differ depending on the lens you use during that time. Underneath is a front view measurement comparison of the E-500 against the W380.

Taking into consideration size and weight, the portability rating of the E-500 and W380 is 70 and 96 respectively.

In many cases, its hard to visualize the difference in sensor measurements simply by viewing a spec sheet. The visual below will help provide you a better sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-500 and W380.

As you can see, both of these cameras come with different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-500 because of its larger sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF simpler and the Sony W380 will provide you with extra detail as a result of its extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also enable you to crop images a good deal more aggressively. The older E-500 will be behind with regard to sensor tech.