Olympus FE-5010 vs Sony NEX-7

Its time to look a little more in depth at the Olympus FE-5010 vs Sony NEX-7, one being a Small Sensor Compact and the other is a Advanced Mirrorless by rivals Olympus and Sony. There exists a huge gap among the image resolutions of the FE-5010 (12MP) and NEX-7 (24MP) and the FE-5010 (1/2.3") and NEX-7 (APS-C) boast different sensor size.

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The FE-5010 was unveiled 3 years prior to the NEX-7 and that is a fairly significant gap as far as camera technology is concerned. Both cameras have different body design with the Olympus FE-5010 being a Compact camera and the Sony NEX-7 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going right into a complete comparison, here is a concise highlight of how the FE-5010 grades against the NEX-7 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus FE-5010 and Sony Alpha NEX-7. The full galleries are viewable at Olympus FE-5010 Gallery and Sony NEX-7 Gallery.

If you're planning to lug around your camera, you will need to factor its weight and proportions. The Olympus FE-5010 provides physical measurements of 96mm x 57mm x 21mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.8") with a weight of 130 grams (0.29 lbs) whilst the Sony NEX-7 has measurements of 120mm x 67mm x 43mm (4.7" x 2.6" x 1.7") along with a weight of 400 grams (0.88 lbs).

Compare the Olympus FE-5010 vs Sony NEX-7 in the new Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will vary based on the lens you are working with at that time. The following is a front view dimensions comparison of the FE-5010 versus the NEX-7.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability score of the FE-5010 and NEX-7 is 96 and 84 respectively.

Typically, it can be hard to imagine the gap in sensor measurements just by looking through specs. The photograph underneath should provide you a clearer sense of the sensor measurements in the FE-5010 and NEX-7.

As you can plainly see, both of those cameras provide different megapixel count and different sensor measurements. The FE-5010 using its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF more challenging and the Sony NEX-7 will result in extra detail having an extra 12 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also allow you to crop images more aggressively. The older FE-5010 will be behind when it comes to sensor tech.