Sony A290 vs Sony WX500

Its time to look more closely at the Sony A290 vs Sony WX500, one being a Entry-Level DSLR and the other is a Small Sensor Superzoom and they are both produced by Sony. There is a huge difference between the sensor resolutions of the A290 (14MP) and WX500 (18MP) and the A290 (APS-C) and WX500 (1/2.3") boast totally different sensor dimensions.

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The A290 was released 5 years earlier than the WX500 and that is quite a significant gap as far as tech is concerned. Each of these cameras have different body design with the Sony A290 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony WX500 being a Compact camera.

Before diving right into a thorough comparison, here is a short highlight of how the A290 matches up vs the WX500 when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Below is a sample of the gallery pics for Sony Alpha DSLR-A290 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX500. The complete galleries are available at Sony A290 Gallery and Sony WX500 Gallery.

If you are looking to lug around your camera, you need to think about its weight and volume. The Sony A290 has outside measurements of 128mm x 97mm x 86mm (5.0" x 3.8" x 3.4") accompanied by a weight of 549 grams (1.21 lbs) and the Sony WX500 has sizing of 102mm x 58mm x 36mm (4.0" x 2.3" x 1.4") along with a weight of 236 grams (0.52 lbs).

Take a look at the Sony A290 vs Sony WX500 in the latest Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are utilizing at that moment. Below is a front view scale comparison of the A290 against the WX500.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability score of the A290 and WX500 is 66 and 91 respectively.

Usually, it's difficult to envision the gap between sensor measurements purely by reading technical specs. The graphic below should offer you a clearer sense of the sensor measurements in the A290 and WX500.

As you can tell, the two cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The A290 due to its larger sensor will make achieving shallower depth of field simpler and the Sony WX500 will offer you extra detail as a result of its extra 4MP. Greater resolution can also make it easier to crop pics more aggressively. The older A290 is going to be disadvantaged with regard to sensor innovation.