Olympus E-PL9 vs Olympus 550WP

Let's look more closely at the Olympus E-PL9 and Olympus 550WP, one being a Entry-Level Mirrorless and the latter is a Small Sensor Compact and both are designed by Olympus. There exists a sizeable gap between the image resolutions of the E-PL9 (16MP) and 550WP (10MP) and the E-PL9 (Four Thirds) and 550WP (1/2.3") offer totally different sensor measurements.

Photography Glossary

The E-PL9 was released 9 years later than the 550WP and that is quite a large gap as far as technology is concerned. Each of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-PL9 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Olympus 550WP being a Compact camera.

Before getting into a in-depth comparison, here is a concise summary of how the E-PL9 scores versus the 550WP in the way of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery images for Olympus PEN E-PL9 and Olympus Stylus 550WP. The complete galleries are available at Olympus E-PL9 Gallery and Olympus 550WP Gallery.

When you are planning to lug around your camera regularly, you will want to think about its weight and volume. The Olympus E-PL9 provides exterior dimensions of 117mm x 68mm x 39mm (4.6" x 2.7" x 1.5") having a weight of 380 grams (0.84 lbs) while the Olympus 550WP has sizing of 94mm x 62mm x 22mm (3.7" x 2.4" x 0.9") having a weight of 167 grams (0.37 lbs).

Check out the Olympus E-PL9 and Olympus 550WP in the all new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change dependant on the lens you choose at the time. The following is a front view overall size comparison of the E-PL9 against the 550WP.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-PL9 and 550WP is 85 and 94 respectively.

More often than not, its difficult to envision the contrast between sensor measurements merely by going over specs. The photograph below should provide you a better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-PL9 and 550WP.

As you can plainly see, the two cameras provide different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The E-PL9 featuring a bigger sensor will make getting shallow DOF easier and the Olympus E-PL9 will deliver extra detail as a result of its extra 6 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also let you crop shots more aggressively. The younger E-PL9 will have an edge in sensor technology.