Sony A300 vs Sony W800

Lets look more closely at the Sony A300 and Sony W800, one being a Entry-Level DSLR and the other is a Small Sensor Compact and both are sold by Sony. There is a crucial difference between the sensor resolutions of the A300 (10MP) and W800 (20MP) and the A300 (APS-C) and W800 (1/2.3") provide totally different sensor size.

Photography Glossary

The A300 was announced 7 years earlier than the W800 and that is quite a serious gap as far as tech is concerned. Both of these cameras have different body design with the Sony A300 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony W800 being a Compact camera.

Before getting into a step-by-step comparison, here is a short synopsis of how the A300 matches up vs the W800 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

This is a sample of the gallery pictures for Sony Alpha DSLR-A300 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W800. The whole galleries are available at Sony A300 Gallery and Sony W800 Gallery.

In case you're going to carry your camera frequently, you will have to consider its weight and dimensions. The Sony A300 features outer measurements of 131mm x 99mm x 75mm (5.2" x 3.9" x 3.0") accompanied by a weight of 632 grams (1.39 lbs) while the Sony W800 has dimensions of 97mm x 55mm x 21mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.8") along with a weight of 125 grams (0.28 lbs).

Contrast the Sony A300 and Sony W800 in the new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are utilising during that time. Below is a front view over all size comparison of the A300 versus the W800.

Factoring in size and weight, the portability grade of the A300 and W800 is 64 and 96 respectively.

In many cases, its hard to envision the gap between sensor sizing merely by reading a spec sheet. The graphic below will help give you a clearer sense of the sensor sizing in the A300 and W800.

Clearly, each of the cameras have different resolutions and different sensor sizing. The A300 with its larger sensor will make achieving shallow DOF easier and the Sony W800 will deliver greater detail with its extra 10MP. Greater resolution will make it easier to crop pics a bit more aggressively. The older A300 is going to be disadvantaged with regard to sensor innovation.