Olympus E-M10 III vs Sony A500

Its time to look a bit more in depth at the Olympus E-M10 III vs Sony A500, former being a Entry-Level Mirrorless while the latter is a Entry-Level DSLR by companies Olympus and Sony. There exists a large gap among the sensor resolutions of the E-M10 III (16MP) and A500 (12MP) and the E-M10 III (Four Thirds) and A500 (APS-C) boast totally different sensor sizes.

Pentax 17 Pre-Orders Outperform Expectations by a Landslide

The E-M10 III was manufactured 8 years later than the A500 and that is a fairly serious difference as far as camera technology is concerned. Both the cameras feature different body design with the Olympus E-M10 III being a SLR-style mirrorless camera and the Sony A500 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before delving right into a full comparison, here is a quick overview of how the E-M10 III scores versus the A500 with regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Following is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III & Sony Alpha DSLR-A500. The entire galleries are viewable at Olympus E-M10 III Gallery & Sony A500 Gallery.

In case you're intending to lug around your camera frequently, you'll need to consider its weight and size. The Olympus E-M10 III enjoys outside measurements of 122mm x 84mm x 50mm (4.8" x 3.3" x 2.0") accompanied by a weight of 410 grams (0.90 lbs) and the Sony A500 has specifications of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") along with a weight of 630 grams (1.39 lbs).

Look at the Olympus E-M10 III vs Sony A500 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an ILC will change based on the lens you are employing at that time. Following is a front view size comparison of the E-M10 III and the A500.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-M10 III and A500 is 80 and 63 respectively.

Typically, it is hard to envision the difference in sensor measurements only by looking through specifications. The visual below will offer you a more clear sense of the sensor sizing in the E-M10 III and A500.

To sum up, each of these cameras come with different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-M10 III because of its smaller sensor will make shooting shallow depth of field more challenging and the Olympus E-M10 III will render extra detail due to its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also help you crop shots a good deal more aggressively. The more modern E-M10 III will have a benefit in sensor tech.