Sony NEX-5R vs Sony W290

Below is a detailed overview of the Sony NEX-5R vs Sony W290, former being a Entry-Level Mirrorless while the latter is a Small Sensor Compact and both of them are built by Sony. There is a noticeable difference between the image resolutions of the NEX-5R (16MP) and W290 (12MP) and the NEX-5R (APS-C) and W290 (1/2.3") feature different sensor measurements.

Photography Glossary

The NEX-5R was released 3 years later than the W290 and that is quite a sizable difference as far as tech is concerned. The two cameras come with different body type with the Sony NEX-5R being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Sony W290 being a Compact camera.

Before delving straight into a complete comparison, below is a quick view of how the NEX-5R grades versus the W290 in terms of portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery photos for Sony Alpha NEX-5R & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290. The complete galleries are provided at Sony NEX-5R Gallery & Sony W290 Gallery.

For those who are planning to lug around your camera frequently, you are going to need to factor in its weight and dimensions. The Sony NEX-5R provides exterior dimensions of 111mm x 59mm x 39mm (4.4" x 2.3" x 1.5") having a weight of 276 grams (0.61 lbs) while the Sony W290 has dimensions of 98mm x 57mm x 23mm (3.9" x 2.2" x 0.9") with a weight of 167 grams (0.37 lbs).

See the Sony NEX-5R vs Sony W290 in our brand new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an ILC will change based on the lens you select at that time. Following is the front view overall size comparison of the NEX-5R and the W290.

Using size and weight, the portability score of the NEX-5R and W290 is 89 and 94 respectively.

Oftentimes, its hard to visualize the difference between sensor measurements just by reading specs. The visual below may provide you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the NEX-5R and W290.

All in all, both cameras posses different megapixels and different sensor measurements. The NEX-5R because of its bigger sensor is going to make achieving shallow depth of field less difficult and the Sony NEX-5R will deliver extra detail as a result of its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution will also make it easier to crop photographs somewhat more aggressively. The younger NEX-5R provides a benefit with regard to sensor tech.