Olympus E-520 vs Sony NEX-3N

Here is a extensive comparison of the Olympus E-520 versus Sony NEX-3N, former being a Entry-Level DSLR while the other is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by companies Olympus and Sony. There exists a substantial gap among the resolutions of the E-520 (10MP) and NEX-3N (16MP) and the E-520 (Four Thirds) and NEX-3N (APS-C) posses different sensor sizes.

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The E-520 was announced 5 years before the NEX-3N and that is a fairly big difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-520 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony NEX-3N being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before getting into a thorough comparison, here is a short view of how the E-520 grades against the NEX-3N in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

This is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus E-520 & Sony Alpha NEX-3N. The whole galleries are provided at Olympus E-520 Gallery & Sony NEX-3N Gallery.

If you are looking to carry your camera frequently, you'll need to take into account its weight and proportions. The Olympus E-520 has exterior dimensions of 136mm x 92mm x 68mm (5.4" x 3.6" x 2.7") with a weight of 552 grams (1.22 lbs) whilst the Sony NEX-3N has measurements of 110mm x 62mm x 35mm (4.3" x 2.4" x 1.4") accompanied by a weight of 269 grams (0.59 lbs).

Take a look at the Olympus E-520 versus Sony NEX-3N in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will change based on the lens you are working with during that time. Underneath is a front view overall size comparison of the E-520 versus the NEX-3N.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the E-520 and NEX-3N is 68 and 89 respectively.

Quite often, it is very difficult to imagine the contrast in sensor sizing purely by looking through a spec sheet. The graphic below will help provide you a stronger sense of the sensor sizes in the E-520 and NEX-3N.

As you can see, each of the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor sizing. The E-520 having a smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallower depth of field more challenging and the Sony NEX-3N will provide you with greater detail with its extra 6 Megapixels. Greater resolution will enable you to crop photos a bit more aggressively. The older E-520 will be behind in sensor technology.