Olympus E-M5 vs Olympus Tough-3000

Its time to take a closer look at the Olympus E-M5 and Olympus Tough-3000, former is a Advanced Mirrorless while the other is a Waterproof and they are both designed by Olympus. There exists a considerable gap between the image resolutions of the E-M5 (16MP) and Tough-3000 (12MP) and the E-M5 (Four Thirds) and Tough-3000 (1/2.3") posses different sensor sizing.

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The E-M5 was introduced 2 years after the Tough-3000 which is quite a large difference as far as technology is concerned. Both the cameras feature different body design with the Olympus E-M5 being a SLR-style mirrorless camera and the Olympus Tough-3000 being a Compact camera.

Before we go straight to a comprehensive comparison, here is a short highlight of how the E-M5 matches up against the Tough-3000 for portability, imaging, features and an overall score.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus OM-D E-M5 & Olympus Stylus Tough-3000. The whole galleries are provided at Olympus E-M5 Gallery & Olympus Tough-3000 Gallery.

For anybody who is aiming to carry around your camera often, you have to factor in its weight and proportions. The Olympus E-M5 provides external dimensions of 122mm x 89mm x 43mm (4.8" x 3.5" x 1.7") having a weight of 425 grams (0.94 lbs) whilst the Olympus Tough-3000 has measurements of 96mm x 65mm x 23mm (3.8" x 2.6" x 0.9") with a weight of 159 grams (0.35 lbs).

Check the Olympus E-M5 and Olympus Tough-3000 in our newest Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will change depending on the lens you are working with at the time. Following is a front view size comparison of the E-M5 versus the Tough-3000.

Factoring in dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the E-M5 and Tough-3000 is 81 and 94 respectively.

More often than not, its difficult to visualize the contrast between sensor sizes purely by reading through technical specs. The pic underneath should give you a much better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-M5 and Tough-3000.

As you can tell, the 2 cameras come with different resolutions and different sensor sizes. The E-M5 having a larger sensor is going to make achieving shallow DOF simpler and the Olympus E-M5 will resolve greater detail using its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will allow you to crop pics a good deal more aggressively. The more modern E-M5 should have a benefit when it comes to sensor tech.