Sony a5100 vs Sony RX100 III

The following is a in depth review of the Sony a5100 and Sony RX100 III, one is a Entry-Level Mirrorless and the latter is a Large Sensor Compact and both of them are sold by Sony. The image resolution of the a5100 (24MP) and the RX100 III (20MP) is pretty well matched but the a5100 (APS-C) and RX100 III (1") come with totally different sensor dimensions.

Photography Glossary

The a5100 was introduced 4 months after the RX100 III which means that they are of a similar generation. Both the cameras come with different body type with the Sony a5100 being a Rangefinder-style mirrorless camera and the Sony RX100 III being a Large Sensor Compact camera.

Before diving straight into a in depth comparison, below is a concise view of how the a5100 scores versus the RX100 III when it comes to portability, imaging, features and an overall mark.

The following is a preview of the gallery images for Sony Alpha a5100 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III. The whole galleries are available at Sony a5100 Gallery and Sony RX100 III Gallery.

When you are aiming to travel with your camera often, you're going to have to factor its weight and measurements. The Sony a5100 has got outer dimensions of 110mm x 63mm x 36mm (4.3" x 2.5" x 1.4") along with a weight of 283 grams (0.62 lbs) while the Sony RX100 III has proportions of 102mm x 58mm x 41mm (4.0" x 2.3" x 1.6") and a weight of 290 grams (0.64 lbs).

Check the Sony a5100 and Sony RX100 III in the latest Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Do not forget, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change depending on the lens you are utilizing at that moment. Following is the front view size comparison of the a5100 versus the RX100 III.

Looking at dimensions and weight, the portability score of the a5100 and RX100 III is 89 and 89 respectively.

Quite often, it can be hard to see the difference between sensor dimensions purely by reading through technical specs. The image here will give you a far better sense of the sensor sizes in the a5100 and RX100 III.

As you can tell, both of those cameras posses different resolutions and different sensor dimensions. The a5100 having a bigger sensor will make shooting shallow DOF less difficult and the Sony a5100 will resolve extra detail using its extra 4 Megapixels. Higher resolution can also enable you to crop photographs somewhat more aggressively.