Olympus E-PM1 vs Sony A37

The following is a comprehensive comparison of the Olympus E-PM1 versus Sony A37, former is a Entry-Level Mirrorless while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by companies Olympus and Sony. There exists a large gap among the sensor resolutions of the E-PM1 (12MP) and A37 (16MP) and the E-PM1 (Four Thirds) and A37 (APS-C) have different sensor dimensions.

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The E-PM1 was released 5 months earlier than the A37 which means that they are of a similar age. Both cameras have different body design with the Olympus E-PM1 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Sony A37 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before getting into a detailed comparison, here is a short summary of how the E-PM1 grades vs the A37 with respect to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Following is a sample of the gallery pics for Olympus PEN E-PM1 & Sony SLT-A37. The complete galleries are viewable at Olympus E-PM1 Gallery & Sony A37 Gallery.

If you are planning to travel with your camera regularly, you will need to take into account its weight and volume. The Olympus E-PM1 has got outer dimensions of 110mm x 64mm x 34mm (4.3" x 2.5" x 1.3") along with a weight of 265 grams (0.58 lbs) whilst the Sony A37 has sizing of 124mm x 92mm x 85mm (4.9" x 3.6" x 3.3") having a weight of 506 grams (1.12 lbs).

Compare the Olympus E-PM1 versus Sony A37 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember, the weight of an ILC will change dependant on the lens you have attached during that time. Following is a front view sizing comparison of the E-PM1 and the A37.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the E-PM1 and A37 is 89 and 67 respectively.

Typically, its hard to visualize the difference in sensor dimensions simply by seeing technical specs. The picture here will provide you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the E-PM1 and A37.

As you can tell, both of the cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The E-PM1 because of its smaller sensor is going to make achieving shallower DOF more difficult and the Sony A37 will provide extra detail as a result of its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will also make it easier to crop photos more aggressively.