Olympus FE-5020 vs Sony NEX-5N

Lets look much closer at the Olympus FE-5020 versus Sony NEX-5N, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by manufacturers Olympus and Sony. There exists a sizable gap among the image resolutions of the FE-5020 (12MP) and NEX-5N (16MP) and the FE-5020 (1/2.3") and NEX-5N (APS-C) have different sensor sizing.

Photography Glossary

The FE-5020 was brought out 3 years before the NEX-5N and that is a fairly significant difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Each of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus FE-5020 being a Compact camera and the Sony NEX-5N being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before getting into a more detailed comparison, here is a short summation of how the FE-5020 matches up against the NEX-5N when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

Here is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus FE-5020 & Sony Alpha NEX-5N. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus FE-5020 Gallery & Sony NEX-5N Gallery.

For those who are looking to carry your camera regularly, you are going to need to factor its weight and volume. The Olympus FE-5020 offers external dimensions of 93mm x 56mm x 25mm (3.7" x 2.2" x 1.0") having a weight of 137 grams (0.30 lbs) whilst the Sony NEX-5N has sizing of 111mm x 59mm x 38mm (4.4" x 2.3" x 1.5") accompanied by a weight of 269 grams (0.59 lbs).

Contrast the Olympus FE-5020 versus Sony NEX-5N in our newest Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you are working with at the time. Following is a front view size comparison of the FE-5020 against the NEX-5N.

Taking into consideration dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the FE-5020 and NEX-5N is 95 and 89 respectively.

Typically, it's hard to imagine the difference in sensor sizing just by looking through specs. The photograph here should provide you a clearer sense of the sensor dimensions in the FE-5020 and NEX-5N.

As you can plainly see, both of the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor sizing. The FE-5020 due to its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallower DOF tougher and the Sony NEX-5N will provide you with more detail having its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will also make it easier to crop photos a bit more aggressively. The older FE-5020 will be disadvantaged in sensor technology.