Olympus FE-5020 vs Sony A560

Below is a extensive assessment of the Olympus FE-5020 and Sony A560, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by rivals Olympus and Sony. The resolution of the FE-5020 (12MP) and the A560 (14MP) is very close but the FE-5020 (1/2.3") and A560 (APS-C) provide different sensor sizing.

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The FE-5020 was announced 13 months before the A560 making them a generation apart from each other. Both cameras have different body design with the Olympus FE-5020 being a Compact camera and the Sony A560 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before getting into a full comparison, here is a short summary of how the FE-5020 scores against the A560 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Below is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus FE-5020 & Sony Alpha DSLR-A560. The whole galleries are available at Olympus FE-5020 Gallery & Sony A560 Gallery.

For those who are aiming to lug around your camera, you'll have to take into account its weight and size. The Olympus FE-5020 features external dimensions of 93mm x 56mm x 25mm (3.7" x 2.2" x 1.0") with a weight of 137 grams (0.30 lbs) whilst the Sony A560 has specifications of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") accompanied by a weight of 599 grams (1.32 lbs).

See the Olympus FE-5020 and Sony A560 in our newest Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will change based on the lens you have attached at that moment. The following is a front view size comparison of the FE-5020 versus the A560.

Taking into consideration size and weight, the portability score of the FE-5020 and A560 is 95 and 64 respectively.

In many cases, its difficult to picture the gap in sensor measurements merely by viewing specs. The photograph underneath may provide you a much better sense of the sensor sizes in the FE-5020 and A560.

All in all, both of the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The FE-5020 with its smaller sensor is going to make getting shallow DOF more challenging and the Sony A560 will render more detail with its extra 2 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also let you crop photos a bit more aggressively. The older FE-5020 will be disadvantaged in sensor technology.