Sony Alpha 7CR vs Olympus PEN E-P2

In this comparison, we will evaluate the Sony Alpha 7CR and the Olympus PEN E-P2, 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 7CR was introduced in August 2023 and Olympus PEN E-P2 was introduced in April 2010. 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 7CR over Olympus PEN E-P2.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Olympus PEN E-P2 over Sony Alpha 7CR.

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 7CR and Olympus PEN E-P2 have 3.0" screens with 1,037k dots and 230k dot resolutions respectively. Sony Alpha 7CR has a Fully Articulated screen which makes it selfie and vlogger friendly and generally very useful for video shooting. Olympus PEN E-P2 has a Fixed screen Sony Alpha 7CR also features 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 7CR has a built-in 0.39" Electronic (OLED) viewfinder with 2,359k dots resolution. It has a 100% coverage and 0.7x magnification.Olympus PEN E-P2 does not have a built-in viewfinder but an optional electronic VF-2 can be attached.

Sony Alpha 7CR features a 60.2 megapixel Full Frame BSI-CMOS sensor with dimensions of 35.7 x 23.8 mm and a total area of 849.7 mm². Its native ISO range is 100 - 32,000 and expands to 50 - 102,800 in boosted mode. Olympus PEN E-P2 features a 12 megapixel Micro Four Thirds CMOS sensor with dimensions of 17.3 x 13 mm and a total area of 169 mm². Its native ISO range is 100 - 6,400.

Sony Alpha 7CR 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 7CR is equipped with Bionz XR processor and can take pictures up to 9504 x 6336 resolution. Olympus PEN E-P2 is equipped with TruePic V processor and can take pictures up to 4032 x 3024 resolution. It can also take pictures with lower resolution like 3200 x 2400, 2560 x 1920, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480 with 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 aspect ratios.

Lens Mount

Sony Alpha 7CR has Sony E lens mount and Olympus PEN E-P2 has Micro Four Thirds lens mount. Due to Full Frame sensor in Sony Alpha 7CR its crop factor is equal to 1x, this means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length. Due to Micro Four Thirds sensor in Olympus PEN E-P2 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.

In-Body Image Stabilization

The cameras have a built-in in-body image stabilization (IBIS) (7 stops of compensation in Sony Alpha 7CR). 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 on Sony Alpha 7CR

Sony Alpha 7CR has a built-in Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 5, MIMO 2x2, 802.11ac/b/g/n, 2.4/5 GHz) 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 7CR

Sony Alpha 7CR 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. Sony Alpha 7CR has a Micro HDMI and Olympus PEN E-P2 has a Mini type C HDMI connector for video signal output.

Battery

Sony Alpha 7CR comes with NP-FZ100 battery pack with battery life of 520 shots and Olympus PEN E-P2 comes with BLS-1 battery pack with battery life of 300 shots.

External Storage Slots

Sony Alpha 7CR has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) card slot. Olympus PEN E-P2 has a single SD/SDHC card slot.

Shutter

Sony Alpha 7CR has Mechanical Focal Plane shutter and Electronic 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 7CR, and up to 1/4000 sec on Olympus PEN E-P2. Sony Alpha 7CR can shoot continuously up to 8.0 fps. Olympus PEN E-P2 can shoot continuously up to 3.0 fps.

Focusing

Sony Alpha 7CR has Fast Hybrid AF (Phase-detection / Contrast-detection) system with 693 focusing points and Olympus PEN E-P2 has 11 focusing points. Sony Alpha 7CR has detection range from -4 to +20 EV.

Exposure

Exposure meterings of Sony Alpha 7CR and Olympus PEN E-P2 range from -3 to +20 EV and 0 to +18 EV respectively and you can set the exposure compensation within the ±5 EV range on Sony Alpha 7CR and ±3 EV range on Olympus PEN E-P2. You can also do exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Sony Alpha 7CR and exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Olympus PEN E-P2.

Flash

Cameras have no built-in flash but an external flash may be connected to both of them via Shoe Mount to Sony Alpha 7CR and via Hot Shoe to Olympus PEN E-P2. The fastest flash synchronization speed is 1/160 sec on Sony Alpha 7CR and 1/180 sec on Olympus PEN E-P2.

Sony Alpha 7CR body has dimensions of 124 x 71 x 63 mm (4.88 x 2.8 x 2.48") and Olympus PEN E-P2 body has dimensions of 121 x 70 x 36 mm (4.76 x 2.76 x 1.42"). Sony Alpha 7CR weighs 515 g (1.14 lb / 18.17 oz) and Olympus PEN E-P2 weighs 355 g (0.78 lb / 12.52 oz).

Sony Alpha 7CR

Olympus PEN E-P2

124 mm

71 mm

121 mm

70 mm

71 mm

70 mm

63 mm

36 mm