Any noticeable difference between Olym. E500 and Sony A5000?

[TonyRPH]

I have an Olympus E500 with a couple of Olympus lenses.

I've seen a Sony A5000 for sale at £180.

I know the Sony is mirrorless (and quite a bit more modern than the E500), so I was wondering if I'd see a huge difference in image quality between the two?

I often feel that I don't make full use of the features on the E500 (bracketing etc.) but wonder if the Sony would be a step down?

I also have a Panasonic DMS-F30 which I often use alongside the E500 - and it (Panasonic) does seem to take some really good pictures.

One final thing I noticed is that lenses for the Sony might be a bit dear? (I'd only want a 50 - 150 zoom)

[PartsMonkey]

The main questions to ask are what do you photograph and why do you want to move on from the E500?

Regardless of the above, you will notice a difference in quality as the E500 is 14 years old with a (for the time fantastic) CCD sensor. The A5000 is 5 years old and features a more modern and much higher resolution CMOS sensor. The two main downsides of the Sony for me are the lack of a viewfinder and the expense of the lenses.

[TonyRPH]

Most of my photography is landscapes, sunrise, sunset, wildlife (usually static).

At times I feel the E500 doesn't cope very well with certain light conditions, usually when the sky is very overcast.

You're right about the cost of the Sony lenses though - it really does take the shine off buying one.

ETA: It looks as though a used Olympus E-3 might be a good upgrade to the E500.

Edited by TonyRPH on Tuesday 9th April 20:38

[PartsMonkey]

I don't think you'll notice a massive upgrade with the E3. In fact I'd be inclined to leave Four Thirds altogether as it is a dead system.

Have you considered one of the Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus or Panasonic? It's the original mirrorless system so there is plenty of choice on the used market and the prices of both the bodies and especially the lenses are pretty reasonable compared to Sony. You can also use your lenses from your E500 with the relevant adaptor (auto focus is iffy on certain models though).

In terms of image quality, You should notice an improvement over your E500 if you can go for a newer 16 megapixel sensor or better.

[Bumblebee7]

I would also recommend going for a M43 set up. The lenses are reasonably priced and the quality on some of them is outstanding. I've recently upgraded to sony at a much higher price and I'm not seeing a dramatic difference from my Olympus set up. I'm currently selling my whole m43 system on eBay and you could certainly get a cracking set up for a few hundred quid. It's also very compact. I had the 9-18, 20mm panny and 45mm oly which are unbelievably compact for the quality.