Olympus FE-5020 vs Sony A37

Lets look a little more closely at the Olympus FE-5020 and Sony A37, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by competitors Olympus and Sony. There exists a noticeable gap between the image resolutions of the FE-5020 (12MP) and A37 (16MP) and the FE-5020 (1/2.3") and A37 (APS-C) have totally different sensor measurements.

Photography Glossary

The FE-5020 was revealed 3 years before the A37 and that is quite a sizable difference as far as technology is concerned. Both cameras feature different body design with the Olympus FE-5020 being a Compact camera and the Sony A37 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before going straight to a thorough comparison, here is a concise synopsis of how the FE-5020 grades vs the A37 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus FE-5020 & Sony SLT-A37. The full galleries are available at Olympus FE-5020 Gallery & Sony A37 Gallery.

If you are going to carry your camera regularly, you will have to take into account its weight and dimensions. The Olympus FE-5020 has outer 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 A37 has dimensions of 124mm x 92mm x 85mm (4.9" x 3.6" x 3.3") along with a weight of 506 grams (1.12 lbs).

Analyze the Olympus FE-5020 and Sony A37 in our brand new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Bear in mind, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you choose during that time. Here is a front view over all size comparison of the FE-5020 against the A37.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability score of the FE-5020 and A37 is 95 and 67 respectively.

Sometimes, it is tough to see the gap between sensor sizing only by going over technical specs. The visual here will help give you a much better sense of the sensor dimensions in the FE-5020 and A37.

As you can tell, both the cameras feature different megapixels and different sensor sizing. The FE-5020 using its tinier sensor will make achieving bokeh harder and the Sony A37 will deliver extra detail because of its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will allow you to crop photos way more aggressively. The older FE-5020 is going to be disadvantaged in sensor innovation.