Olympus FE-45 vs Sony NEX-5

Its time to look more closely at the Olympus FE-45 vs Sony NEX-5, one is a Small Sensor Compact and the other is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by rivals Olympus and Sony. There exists a sizeable gap among the image resolutions of the FE-45 (10MP) and NEX-5 (14MP) and the FE-45 (1/2.3") and NEX-5 (APS-C) posses different sensor measurements.

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The FE-45 was brought out 17 months earlier than the NEX-5 making them a generation away from one another. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus FE-45 being a Compact camera and the Sony NEX-5 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before delving right into a detailed comparison, here is a simple view of how the FE-45 scores against the NEX-5 in the way of portability, imaging, features and an overall score.

Below is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus FE-45 and Sony Alpha NEX-5. The entire galleries are available at Olympus FE-45 Gallery and Sony NEX-5 Gallery.

For anyone who is intending to carry around your camera often, you are going to need to factor in its weight and measurements. The Olympus FE-45 has got physical measurements of 94mm x 62mm x 23mm (3.7" x 2.4" x 0.9") along with a weight of 142 grams (0.31 lbs) whilst the Sony NEX-5 has proportions of 111mm x 59mm x 38mm (4.4" x 2.3" x 1.5") and a weight of 287 grams (0.63 lbs).

Take a look at the Olympus FE-45 vs Sony NEX-5 in the all new Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will differ based on the lens you have at that moment. Below is a front view over all size comparison of the FE-45 compared to the NEX-5.

Taking into account dimensions and weight, the portability score of the FE-45 and NEX-5 is 95 and 89 respectively.

Sometimes, its difficult to imagine the gap in sensor sizes purely by looking through specifications. The picture below might give you a clearer sense of the sensor sizing in the FE-45 and NEX-5.

Plainly, each of the cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor sizes. The FE-45 because of its smaller sensor is going to make getting shallow DOF more challenging and the Sony NEX-5 will result in extra detail having its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also let you crop images more aggressively. The more aged FE-45 will be disadvantaged with regard to sensor innovation.