Sony A550 vs Sony W830

The following is a complete review of the Sony A550 and Sony W830, former is a Entry-Level DSLR while the latter is a Ultracompact and both of them are produced by Sony. There is a large difference between the resolutions of the A550 (14MP) and W830 (20MP) and the A550 (APS-C) and W830 (1/2.3") posses different sensor sizes.

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The A550 was brought out 5 years earlier than the W830 which is quite a serious difference as far as tech is concerned. Both of the cameras have different body design with the Sony A550 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony W830 being a Ultracompact camera.

Before diving straight to a thorough comparison, here is a brief highlight of how the A550 scores against the W830 in regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

This is a preview of the gallery images for Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W830. The entire galleries are provided at Sony A550 Gallery & Sony W830 Gallery.

When you are planning to travel with your camera often, you need to factor its weight and size. The Sony A550 comes with outer measurements of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") accompanied by a weight of 632 grams (1.39 lbs) and the Sony W830 has specifications of 93mm x 52mm x 23mm (3.7" x 2.0" x 0.9") and a weight of 122 grams (0.27 lbs).

Compare the Sony A550 and Sony W830 in our brand new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Always remember, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you use during that time. Underneath is a front view measurement comparison of the A550 vs the W830.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability score of the A550 and W830 is 63 and 96 respectively.

In many cases, its difficult to imagine the contrast between sensor dimensions purely by checking specifications. The image below might give you a much better sense of the sensor measurements in the A550 and W830.

To sum up, both of these cameras provide different megapixels and different sensor dimensions. The A550 due to its bigger sensor is going to make achieving shallower DOF simpler and the Sony W830 will give more detail having its extra 6MP. Higher resolution will make it easier to crop pictures more aggressively. The more aged A550 is going to be disadvantaged in sensor technology.