Panasonic S5 vs Sony W810

Its time to look a bit more in depth at the Panasonic S5 and Sony W810, one being a Pro Mirrorless and the latter is a Ultracompact by companies Panasonic and Sony. The sensor resolution of the S5 (24MP) and the W810 (20MP) is pretty close but the S5 (Full frame) and W810 (1/2.3") have different sensor dimensions.

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The S5 was manufactured 6 years later than the W810 and that is a fairly serious gap as far as camera tech is concerned. Both of the cameras feature different body design with the Panasonic S5 being a SLR-style mirrorless camera and the Sony W810 being a Ultracompact camera.

Before getting straight to a thorough comparison, here is a simple highlight of how the S5 scores against the W810 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Following is a preview of the gallery images for Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W810. The entire galleries are available at Panasonic S5 Gallery and Sony W810 Gallery.

For those who are looking to lug around your camera regularly, you'll have to factor its weight and size. The Panasonic S5 provides physical dimensions of 133mm x 97mm x 82mm (5.2" x 3.8" x 3.2") and a weight of 714 grams (1.57 lbs) and the Sony W810 has specifications of 97mm x 56mm x 21mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.8") along with a weight of 111 grams (0.24 lbs).

Take a look at the Panasonic S5 and Sony W810 in the all new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into consideration, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are using at that moment. Below is a front view measurements comparison of the S5 vs the W810.

Considering size and weight, the portability grade of the S5 and W810 is 60 and 96 respectively.

In many cases, it is very hard to visualize the difference in sensor measurements simply by looking through a spec sheet. The graphic here will help provide you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the S5 and W810.

As you can see, both of the cameras come with different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The S5 because of its bigger sensor is going to make shooting shallower depth of field easier and the Panasonic S5 will result in extra detail due to its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution will let you crop pictures a good deal more aggressively. The fresher S5 provides an advantage when it comes to sensor technology.