Olympus FE-45 vs Olympus E-PL8

Its time to look a bit more closely at the Olympus FE-45 and Olympus E-PL8, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the latter is a Entry-Level Mirrorless and both are manufactured by Olympus. There is a sizable difference between the sensor resolutions of the FE-45 (10MP) and E-PL8 (16MP) and the FE-45 (1/2.3") and E-PL8 (Four Thirds) come with different sensor sizes.

Photography Glossary

The FE-45 was revealed 8 years before the E-PL8 and that is quite a significant difference as far as tech is concerned. Both cameras come with different body type with the Olympus FE-45 being a Compact camera and the Olympus E-PL8 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before delving through a in depth comparison, below is a brief overview of how the FE-45 scores against the E-PL8 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus FE-45 & Olympus PEN E-PL8. The full galleries are provided at Olympus FE-45 Gallery & Olympus E-PL8 Gallery.

For anybody who is planning to lug around your camera regularly, you will have to consider its weight and dimensions. The Olympus FE-45 features outside dimensions of 94mm x 62mm x 23mm (3.7" x 2.4" x 0.9") along with a weight of 142 grams (0.31 lbs) and the Olympus E-PL8 has dimensions of 115mm x 67mm x 38mm (4.5" x 2.6" x 1.5") with a weight of 357 grams (0.79 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus FE-45 and Olympus E-PL8 in our brand new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will differ depending on the lens you have at the time. Below is the front view size comparison of the FE-45 and the E-PL8.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability rating of the FE-45 and E-PL8 is 95 and 86 respectively.

In many cases, its hard to picture the difference between sensor measurements merely by reading through specs. The photograph here may provide you a stronger sense of the sensor dimensions in the FE-45 and E-PL8.

As you can plainly see, both the cameras posses different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The FE-45 having a tinier sensor is going to make achieving shallower depth of field trickier and the Olympus E-PL8 will give extra detail because of its extra 6 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also make it easier to crop shots somewhat more aggressively. The older FE-45 is going to be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor innovation.