Olympus SP-610UZ vs Sony A500

Its time to look more closely at the Olympus SP-610UZ vs Sony A500, former being a Small Sensor Superzoom while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by rivals Olympus and Sony. The sensor resolution of the SP-610UZ (14MP) and the A500 (12MP) is fairly well matched but the SP-610UZ (1/2.3") and A500 (APS-C) provide different sensor sizing.

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The SP-610UZ was unveiled 17 months later than the A500 making them a generation apart from each other. Each of the cameras have different body design with the Olympus SP-610UZ being a Compact camera and the Sony A500 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before diving right into a detailed comparison, here is a simple summation of how the SP-610UZ matches up versus the A500 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a sample of the gallery pictures for Olympus SP-610UZ & Sony Alpha DSLR-A500. The full galleries are available at Olympus SP-610UZ Gallery & Sony A500 Gallery.

If you're intending to lug around your camera, you are going to need to take into account its weight and proportions. The Olympus SP-610UZ offers outer dimensions of 107mm x 73mm x 73mm (4.2" x 2.9" x 2.9") having a weight of 405 grams (0.89 lbs) whilst the Sony A500 has measurements of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") along with a weight of 630 grams (1.39 lbs).

Contrast the Olympus SP-610UZ vs Sony A500 in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you use at that moment. Following is a front view dimensions comparison of the SP-610UZ versus the A500.

Taking into consideration size and weight, the portability score of the SP-610UZ and A500 is 79 and 63 respectively.

Often, it is difficult to picture the gap between sensor measurements simply by reading through technical specs. The visual below will help offer you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the SP-610UZ and A500.

As you can tell, both cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The SP-610UZ with its tinier sensor is going to make shooting shallow DOF more difficult and the Olympus SP-610UZ will resolve extra detail having an extra 2 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also allow you to crop photos more aggressively. The fresher SP-610UZ provides a benefit in sensor technology.