Olympus E-520 vs Olympus SZ-16 iHS

Its time to look a little more closely at the Olympus E-520 vs Olympus SZ-16 iHS, one being a Entry-Level DSLR and the other is a Small Sensor Superzoom and both of them are sold by Olympus. There exists a huge gap between the resolutions of the E-520 (10MP) and SZ-16 iHS (16MP) and the E-520 (Four Thirds) and SZ-16 iHS (1/2.3") have different sensor sizes.

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The E-520 was unveiled 5 years before the SZ-16 iHS and that is quite a significant gap as far as technology is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-520 being a Compact SLR camera and the Olympus SZ-16 iHS being a Compact camera.

Before delving straight to a comprehensive comparison, here is a simple summation of how the E-520 scores vs the SZ-16 iHS with regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-520 and Olympus SZ-16 iHS. The full galleries are viewable at Olympus E-520 Gallery and Olympus SZ-16 iHS Gallery.

For those who are planning to lug around your camera regularly, you will need to consider its weight and measurements. The Olympus E-520 comes with outside dimensions of 136mm x 92mm x 68mm (5.4" x 3.6" x 2.7") accompanied by a weight of 552 grams (1.22 lbs) whilst the Olympus SZ-16 iHS has proportions of 108mm x 70mm x 40mm (4.3" x 2.8" x 1.6") accompanied by a weight of 226 grams (0.50 lbs).

Check out the Olympus E-520 vs Olympus SZ-16 iHS in the latest Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are working with at that time. Following is a front view sizing comparison of the E-520 against the SZ-16 iHS.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the E-520 and SZ-16 iHS is 68 and 89 respectively.

Normally, it is very tough to visualize the contrast between sensor measurements merely by looking at technical specs. The visual below will provide you a clearer sense of the sensor dimensions in the E-520 and SZ-16 iHS.

As you have seen, both of those cameras have different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The E-520 with its larger sensor is going to make getting shallower depth of field simpler and the Olympus SZ-16 iHS will give you more detail having an extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also make it easier to crop images a bit more aggressively. The older E-520 is going to be behind when it comes to sensor innovation.