Sony W550 vs Sony A77 II

Its time to look much closer at the Sony W550 and Sony A77 II, former being a Ultracompact while the latter is a Advanced DSLR and both are built by Sony. There is a noticeable difference between the resolutions of the W550 (14MP) and A77 II (24MP) and the W550 (1/2.3") and A77 II (APS-C) have different sensor sizing.

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The W550 was unveiled 3 years prior to the A77 II and that is quite a sizable difference as far as tech is concerned. Each of the cameras have different body design with the Sony W550 being a Ultracompact camera and the Sony A77 II being a Mid-size SLR camera.

Before going straight to a detailed comparison, here is a quick summary of how the W550 matches up vs the A77 II when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall rating.

Here is a preview of the gallery images for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W550 & Sony SLT-A77 II. The full galleries are provided at Sony W550 Gallery & Sony A77 II Gallery.

For anyone who is looking to carry your camera regularly, you'll have to think about its weight and size. The Sony W550 comes with external dimensions of 94mm x 56mm x 19mm (3.7" x 2.2" x 0.7") with a weight of 110 grams (0.24 lbs) while the Sony A77 II has specifications of 143mm x 104mm x 81mm (5.6" x 4.1" x 3.2") having a weight of 647 grams (1.43 lbs).

See the Sony W550 and Sony A77 II in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Always remember, the weight of an ILC will change depending on the lens you have attached at the time. Following is a front view dimension comparison of the W550 versus the A77 II.

Taking into account size and weight, the portability grade of the W550 and A77 II is 96 and 62 respectively.

Generally, it's hard to imagine the contrast between sensor sizing purely by looking at specs. The photograph underneath will offer you a clearer sense of the sensor dimensions in the W550 and A77 II.

All in all, both of the cameras have different megapixels and different sensor sizing. The W550 having a tinier sensor is going to make shooting shallow depth of field trickier and the Sony A77 II will give you greater detail having an extra 10MP. Higher resolution can also make it easier to crop photographs a bit more aggressively. The older W550 is going to be behind in sensor tech.