Olympus E-510 vs Sony NEX-5

Lets look much closer at the Olympus E-510 versus Sony NEX-5, former being a Advanced DSLR while the latter is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by companies Olympus and Sony. There exists a substantial gap among the image resolutions of the E-510 (10MP) and NEX-5 (14MP) and the E-510 (Four Thirds) and NEX-5 (APS-C) enjoy totally different sensor sizes.

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The E-510 was revealed 3 years earlier than the NEX-5 and that is a fairly big difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Each of these cameras offer different body type with the Olympus E-510 being a Mid-size SLR camera and the Sony NEX-5 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going in to a detailed comparison, below is a quick summation of how the E-510 grades against the NEX-5 in regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus E-510 & Sony Alpha NEX-5. The full galleries are viewable at Olympus E-510 Gallery & Sony NEX-5 Gallery.

If you're going to lug around your camera, you are going to need to think about its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-510 provides exterior dimensions of 136mm x 92mm x 68mm (5.4" x 3.6" x 2.7") having a weight of 490 grams (1.08 lbs) whilst the Sony NEX-5 has proportions of 111mm x 59mm x 38mm (4.4" x 2.3" x 1.5") with a weight of 287 grams (0.63 lbs).

Check the Olympus E-510 versus Sony NEX-5 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an ILC will vary depending on the lens you choose during that time. Underneath is the front view over all size comparison of the E-510 and the NEX-5.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-510 and NEX-5 is 69 and 89 respectively.

More often than not, its difficult to visualise the gap in sensor measurements only by checking out a spec sheet. The graphic here should provide you a clearer sense of the sensor sizes in the E-510 and NEX-5.

Clearly, both of those cameras offer different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-510 with its smaller sensor will make shooting bokeh more difficult and the Sony NEX-5 will produce extra detail because of its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also make it easier to crop photographs a little more aggressively. The older E-510 will be disadvantaged in sensor innovation.