Sony A500 vs Sony RX10

The following is a extensive assessment of the Sony A500 and Sony RX10, one is a Entry-Level DSLR and the other is a Large Sensor Superzoom and they are both built by Sony. There is a crucial difference among the image resolutions of the A500 (12MP) and RX10 (20MP) and the A500 (APS-C) and RX10 (1") feature different sensor size.

Photography Glossary

The A500 was announced 5 years prior to the RX10 which is a fairly serious gap as far as camera tech is concerned. Both cameras come with different body type with the Sony A500 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony RX10 being a SLR-like (bridge) camera.

Before getting straight into a in depth comparison, below is a concise overview of how the A500 matches up versus the RX10 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

Following is a sample of the gallery pictures for Sony Alpha DSLR-A500 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10. The whole galleries are available at Sony A500 Gallery and Sony RX10 Gallery.

For anyone who is planning to travel with your camera frequently, you will have to consider its weight and dimensions. The Sony A500 has outer dimensions of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") along with a weight of 630 grams (1.39 lbs) while the Sony RX10 has dimensions of 129mm x 88mm x 102mm (5.1" x 3.5" x 4.0") accompanied by a weight of 813 grams (1.79 lbs).

Take a look at the Sony A500 and Sony RX10 in the all new Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Bear in mind, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change based on the lens you are working with at the time. Following is the front view sizing comparison of the A500 and the RX10.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability score of the A500 and RX10 is 63 and 58 respectively.

In many cases, its difficult to picture the difference in sensor dimensions merely by checking out a spec sheet. The image below may provide you a stronger sense of the sensor dimensions in the A500 and RX10.

As you can see, both the cameras posses different resolutions and different sensor dimensions. The A500 having a larger sensor is going to make shooting shallow DOF easier and the Sony RX10 will show more detail with its extra 8 Megapixels. Greater resolution will also let you crop images somewhat more aggressively. The more aged A500 will be disadvantaged in sensor technology.