Olympus E-PL9 vs Sony A500

Let's look more in depth at the Olympus E-PL9 vs Sony A500, former is a Entry-Level Mirrorless while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by manufacturers Olympus and Sony. There is a sizable difference among the image resolutions of the E-PL9 (16MP) and A500 (12MP) and the E-PL9 (Four Thirds) and A500 (APS-C) posses different sensor dimensions.

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The E-PL9 was brought out 8 years after the A500 which is a fairly significant difference as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-PL9 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Sony A500 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before going into a thorough comparison, here is a brief introduction of how the E-PL9 scores versus the A500 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus PEN E-PL9 & Sony Alpha DSLR-A500. The entire galleries are available at Olympus E-PL9 Gallery & Sony A500 Gallery.

If you are going to travel with your camera regularly, you're going to have to factor its weight and dimensions. The Olympus E-PL9 has got physical dimensions of 117mm x 68mm x 39mm (4.6" x 2.7" x 1.5") and a weight of 380 grams (0.84 lbs) while the Sony A500 has dimensions of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") and a weight of 630 grams (1.39 lbs).

Take a look at the Olympus E-PL9 vs Sony A500 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you use at that moment. Following is a front view sizing comparison of the E-PL9 versus the A500.

Looking at size and weight, the portability rating of the E-PL9 and A500 is 85 and 63 respectively.

Generally, it is hard to visualize the difference in sensor dimensions simply by researching specs. The pic underneath should give you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-PL9 and A500.

As you can plainly see, the two cameras provide different megapixel count and different sensor dimensions. The E-PL9 due to its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallower depth of field more difficult and the Olympus E-PL9 will result in extra detail having its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution will enable you to crop images more aggressively. The more modern E-PL9 should have an edge in sensor innovation.