Olympus VG-145 vs Sony NEX-5R

Its time to look a bit more closely at the Olympus VG-145 and Sony NEX-5R, former being a Ultracompact while the latter is a Entry-Level Mirrorless by manufacturers Olympus and Sony. The image resolution of the VG-145 (14MP) and the NEX-5R (16MP) is relatively well matched but the VG-145 (1/2.3") and NEX-5R (APS-C) use different sensor dimensions.

Photography Glossary

The VG-145 was introduced 13 months prior to the NEX-5R which makes the cameras a generation apart from one another. Each of these cameras offer different body type with the Olympus VG-145 being a Ultracompact camera and the Sony NEX-5R being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera.

Before going straight into a more detailed comparison, below is a brief highlight of how the VG-145 grades against the NEX-5R when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

The following is a preview of the gallery photos for Olympus VG-145 & Sony Alpha NEX-5R. The whole galleries are viewable at Olympus VG-145 Gallery & Sony NEX-5R Gallery.

For anyone who is going to lug around your camera often, you need to consider its weight and volume. The Olympus VG-145 comes with outside measurements of 96mm x 57mm x 19mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.7") accompanied by a weight of 120 grams (0.26 lbs) while the Sony NEX-5R has sizing of 111mm x 59mm x 39mm (4.4" x 2.3" x 1.5") with a weight of 276 grams (0.61 lbs).

See the Olympus VG-145 and Sony NEX-5R in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an ILC will change depending on the lens you have attached at the time. Here is the front view scale comparison of the VG-145 and the NEX-5R.

Using dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the VG-145 and NEX-5R is 96 and 89 respectively.

More often than not, it's hard to visualize the difference between sensor measurements merely by checking a spec sheet. The graphic below will offer you a much better sense of the sensor measurements in the VG-145 and NEX-5R.

As you can see, the two cameras offer different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The VG-145 using its tinier sensor is going to make shooting shallow depth of field harder and the Sony NEX-5R will give greater detail using its extra 2MP. Higher resolution can also let you crop shots a little more aggressively. The older VG-145 is going to be disadvantaged with regard to sensor tech.