Sony Alpha 6700 vs Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II

In this comparison, we will evaluate the Sony Alpha 6700 and the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, highlighting the advantages of each over the other, discussing their pros and cons, shared strengths and weaknesses, and providing a rating based on their available features and specifications to assist you in choosing the one that best suits your needs.

Sony Alpha 6700 was introduced in July 2023 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II was introduced in February 2015. Let us first list highlights of the models.

Now that we've looked at the most essential specifications and gained a basic understanding of these cameras, we can delve into more details and see the differences between them.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Sony Alpha 6700 over Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II over Sony Alpha 6700.

We already listed pros and cons of each model. However, you may also find useful to look at their common strengths and weaknesses shown side-by-side.

Screen

Sony Alpha 6700 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II have 3.0" Fully Articulated screens with 1,037k dots and 1,037k dot resolutions respectively. Fully articulated screen makes cameras selfie and vlogger friendly and generally very useful for video shooting. Both models feature touchscreen which has advantages such as easy menu navigation, intuitive controls, quick setting adjustment and most importantly a Touch-to-Focus functionality allowing users to select a specific point on the screen where they want the camera to focus. This feature can be helpful for achieving precise focus in both photo and video recording.

Viewfinder

Sony Alpha 6700 has a built-in 0.39" Electronic (OLED) viewfinder with 2,359k dots resolution and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has a built-in Electronic viewfinder with 2,360k dot resolution. They both have 100% coverage.

Sony Alpha 6700 features a 26.0 megapixel APS-C BSI-CMOS sensor with dimensions of 23.3 x 15.5 mm and a total area of 361.2 mm². Its native ISO range is 100 - 32,000 and expands to 50 - 102,800 in boosted mode. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II features a 16.1 megapixel Micro Four Thirds MOS sensor with dimensions of 17.3 x 13 mm and a total area of 169 mm². Its native ISO range is 200 - 25,600 and expands to 100 - 25,600 in boosted mode.

Sony Alpha 6700 has BSI-CMOS sensor, short for Backside Illuminated Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor sensor. In traditional CMOS sensors, the wiring and circuitry are located on the front side of the sensor, which can block some of the incoming light. BSI technology flips this design by placing the photosensitive elements (pixels) on the backside of the sensor, allowing more light to reach the pixels. This significantly enhances light sensitivity and improves low-light performance. BSI-CMOS sensors are particularly effective in low-light conditions, as they can capture more light, resulting in brighter and less noisy images. This makes them well-suited for indoor and night photography. BSI-CMOS sensors deliver a higher SNR and reduced cross-talk.

Here is a sensor size comparison chart where you can see how different sensors compare with each other:

Sensor size chart

	Sensor	Dimensions	Area	Aspect Ratio	Crop Factor
	Medium Format	44 x 33 mm	1452 mm2	4:3	0.79x
	Full Frame	36 x 24 mm	864 mm2	3:2	1x
	APS-H	27 x 18 mm	486 mm2	3:2	1.3x
	APS-C	23.6 x 15.6 mm	368.2 mm2	3:2	1.5x
	APS-C (Canon)	22.3 x 14.9 mm	332.3 mm2	3:2	1.6x
	Micro Four Thirds	17.4 x 13 mm	226.2 mm2	4:3	2x
	1-inch	13.2 x 8.8 mm	116.2 mm2	3:2	2.7x
	1/1.7-inch	7.44 x 5.58 mm	41.5 mm2	4:3	4.7x
	1/2.3-inch	6.17 x 4.55 mm	28.1 mm2	4:3	5.6x

Sony Alpha 6700 is equipped with Bionz XR processor and can take pictures up to 6192 x 4128 resolution. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II is equipped with TruePic VII processor and can take pictures up to 4608 x 3456 resolution.

Lens Mount

Sony Alpha 6700 has Sony E lens mount and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has Micro Four Thirds lens mount. Due to APS-C sensor in Sony Alpha 6700 its crop factor is equal to 1.5x, this means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length times 1.5. Due to Micro Four Thirds sensor in Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II its crop factor is equal to 2x, this means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length times 2.

No Low-Pass Filter on Sony Alpha 6700

There is no optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing filter, in front of the sensor on Sony Alpha 6700. This results in a slightly sharper image but may also introduce moiré patterns and aliasing artifacts when photographing subjects with fine, repetitive patterns or details.

In-Body Image Stabilization

The cameras have a built-in 5-Axis Sensor Shift in-body image stabilization (IBIS) (5 stops of compensation in Sony Alpha 6700). This means that you are still getting vibration reduction when cameras are paired with non-image stabilizied lenses. It also works with lenses with optical image stabilization and in combination can achieve even better compensation.

Built-in Wi-Fi

Cameras have built-in Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 5 MIMO 2x2 802.11ac/b/g/n 2.4/5 GHz on Sony Alpha 6700, 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II) which allows to easily transfer photos and videos from the camera to other Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as smartphones, tablets, printers, or computers. This eliminates the need for cables and allows for quick and convenient media sharing and social media integration. It gives you the ability to control your camera remotely using a smartphone or tablet. This is particularly useful for taking self-portraits, group shots, or capturing images in challenging conditions without having to touch the camera. Firmware updates can also be downloaded and installed wirelessly.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in WiFi.

Bluetooth on Sony Alpha 6700

Sony Alpha 6700 has a built-in Bluetooth (version 4.2) which lets you to connect the camera to a smartphone or a dedicated remote control device. This allows you to remotely trigger the camera, adjust settings and controls remotely through a paired mobile app. While Wi-Fi is generally faster for transferring larger files, Bluetooth can be used for small, selective transfers, it can provide real-time information about your camera's battery status, memory card capacity, and other key settings directly on your paired smartphone or smartwatch.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in Bluetooth.

USB Inputs and HDMI Outputs

Both models have USB inputs for data transfer and battery charging. Sony Alpha 6700 has a Micro HDMI and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has a Micro HDMI connector for video signal output.

Battery

Sony Alpha 6700 comes with NP-FZ1000 battery pack with battery life of 570 shots and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II comes with BLN-1 battery pack with battery life of 310 shots.

External Storage Slots

Sony Alpha 6700 has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) card slot. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-I) card slot.

Shutter

Sony Alpha 6700 has Mechanical Focal Plane shutter and Electronic shutter. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has Mechanical Focal Plane shutter. Shutter speed can go up to 1/8000 sec with electronic shutter and up to 1/4000 sec with mechanical shutter on Sony Alpha 6700, and up to 1/16000 sec with electronic shutter and up to 1/8000 sec with mechanical shutter on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Sony Alpha 6700 can shoot continuously up to 11.0 fps. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II can shoot continuously up to 10.0 fps.

Focusing

Sony Alpha 6700 has Fast Hybrid AF (Phase-detection / Contrast-detection) system with 759 focusing points and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has 81 focusing points. Sony Alpha 6700 has detection range from -3 to +20 EV.

Exposure

Exposure meterings of Sony Alpha 6700 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II range from -3 to +20 EV and -2 to +20 EV respectively and you can set the exposure compensation within the ±5 EV range on Sony Alpha 6700 and ±5 EV range on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. You can also do exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Sony Alpha 6700 and exposure lock, exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Flash

Cameras have no built-in flash but an external flash may be connected to both of them via Shoe Mount or Wireless connection to Sony Alpha 6700 and via Hot Shoe to Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. The fastest flash synchronization speed is 1/160 sec on Sony Alpha 6700 and 1/250 sec on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Sony Alpha 6700 body has dimensions of 122 x 69 x 64 mm (4.8 x 2.72 x 2.52") and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II body has dimensions of 124 x 85 x 45 mm (4.88 x 3.35 x 1.77"). Sony Alpha 6700 weighs 493 g (1.09 lb / 17.39 oz) and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II weighs 469 g (1.03 lb / 16.54 oz).

Sony Alpha 6700

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II

122 mm

69 mm

124 mm

85 mm

69 mm

85 mm

64 mm

45 mm