Sony A580 vs Sony RX100 VA

Its time to look closer at the Sony A580 vs Sony RX100 VA, one being a Entry-Level DSLR and the other is a Large Sensor Compact and both are designed by Sony. The resolution of the A580 (16MP) and the RX100 VA (20MP) is very close but the A580 (APS-C) and RX100 VA (1") provide different sensor measurements.

Photography Glossary

The A580 was manufactured 8 years prior to the RX100 VA and that is a fairly big gap as far as camera tech is concerned. Both cameras feature different body design with the Sony A580 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony RX100 VA being a Large Sensor Compact camera.

Before diving straight to a detailed comparison, here is a brief summary of how the A580 scores versus the RX100 VA in the way of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a sample of the gallery pics for Sony Alpha DSLR-A580 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V(A). The entire galleries are provided at Sony A580 Gallery and Sony RX100 VA Gallery.

For anyone who is going to lug around your camera, you will need to factor its weight and volume. The Sony A580 has got outside dimensions of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") along with a weight of 599 grams (1.32 lbs) and the Sony RX100 VA has sizing of 102mm x 58mm x 41mm (4.0" x 2.3" x 1.6") and a weight of 299 grams (0.66 lbs).

Look at the Sony A580 vs Sony RX100 VA in the all new Camera and Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Take into account, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will vary based on the lens you are using at that moment. The following is a front view measurement comparison of the A580 versus the RX100 VA.

Using size and weight, the portability score of the A580 and RX100 VA is 64 and 89 respectively.

Often, it's difficult to picture the difference in sensor measurements purely by looking through a spec sheet. The visual below should give you a more clear sense of the sensor sizes in the A580 and RX100 VA.

As you can see, both of those cameras come with different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The A580 because of its larger sensor is going to make getting shallow depth of field simpler and the Sony RX100 VA will provide you with greater detail due to its extra 4MP. Greater resolution will also make it easier to crop images a good deal more aggressively. The older A580 will be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor tech.