Panasonic LX5 vs Sony A390

Let's take a deeper look at the Panasonic LX5 vs Sony A390, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the other is a Entry-Level DSLR by competitors Panasonic and Sony. There exists a substantial gap among the image resolutions of the LX5 (10MP) and A390 (14MP) and the LX5 (1/1.63") and A390 (APS-C) posses totally different sensor dimensions.

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The LX5 was manufactured 17 months later than the A390 making them a generation apart from one another. Both cameras have different body design with the Panasonic LX5 being a Compact camera and the Sony A390 being a Compact SLR camera.

Before diving right into a detailed comparison, here is a short overview of how the LX5 scores against the A390 in relation to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Below is a sample of the gallery pics for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 & Sony Alpha DSLR-A390. The entire galleries are provided at Panasonic LX5 Gallery & Sony A390 Gallery.

When you are intending to lug around your camera often, you have to take into account its weight and dimensions. The Panasonic LX5 provides physical measurements of 110mm x 65mm x 43mm (4.3" x 2.6" x 1.7") having a weight of 271 grams (0.60 lbs) whilst the Sony A390 has dimensions of 128mm x 97mm x 86mm (5.0" x 3.8" x 3.4") and a weight of 549 grams (1.21 lbs).

Analyze the Panasonic LX5 vs Sony A390 in our newest Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an ILC will differ depending on the lens you are using during that time. Here is a front view dimension comparison of the LX5 vs the A390.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the LX5 and A390 is 88 and 66 respectively.

Normally, it is very hard to visualise the difference in sensor measurements merely by looking through a spec sheet. The graphic here will help provide you a much better sense of the sensor measurements in the LX5 and A390.

As you can see, both the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The LX5 because of its smaller sensor will make getting shallower depth of field trickier and the Sony A390 will provide you with extra detail due to its extra 4 Megapixels. Greater resolution can also allow you to crop images a bit more aggressively. The more recent LX5 is going to have an edge when it comes to sensor tech.