Sony A580 vs Sony W510

Lets take a closer look at the Sony A580 vs Sony W510, former being a Entry-Level DSLR while the latter is a Ultracompact and they are both manufactured by Sony. There exists a considerable gap between the image resolutions of the A580 (16MP) and W510 (12MP) and the A580 (APS-C) and W510 (1/2.3") posses totally different sensor sizes.

Photography Glossary

The A580 was unveiled 5 months later than the W510 so they are both of a similar age. Both of the cameras feature different body design with the Sony A580 being a Compact SLR camera and the Sony W510 being a Ultracompact camera.

Before delving into a step-by-step comparison, here is a quick highlight of how the A580 grades against the W510 when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

Here is a preview of the gallery images for Sony Alpha DSLR-A580 & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W510. The full galleries are viewable at Sony A580 Gallery & Sony W510 Gallery.

When you are going to lug around your camera frequently, you have to think about its weight and volume. The Sony A580 provides external dimensions of 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3") accompanied by a weight of 599 grams (1.32 lbs) while the Sony W510 has sizing of 96mm x 54mm x 20mm (3.8" x 2.1" x 0.8") with a weight of 119 grams (0.26 lbs).

Check the Sony A580 vs Sony W510 in our completely new Camera plus Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an ILC will vary based on the lens you choose at the time. Following is a front view proportions comparison of the A580 against the W510.

Taking into account dimensions and weight, the portability grade of the A580 and W510 is 64 and 96 respectively.

Sometimes, it is very difficult to envision the contrast between sensor measurements purely by reading through a spec sheet. The visual below might provide you a more clear sense of the sensor sizes in the A580 and W510.

As you can see, both of these cameras come with different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The A580 using its bigger sensor will make shooting shallower DOF simpler and the Sony A580 will resolve more detail having an extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also make it easier to crop photographs a good deal more aggressively.