Sony α6x00 (Advanced APS-C) Mirrorless Cameras (2019) vs Olympus OM-D E-M5 Cameras (2015)

The Sony α6600 (2019) is a relatively good Mirrorless Camera for people that are willing to spend around $1,000. The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015), by contrast, is quite unremarkable and doesn't stand out in any meaningful way from other products at this price point.

In both cases, however, we recommend that you take look at some other options at the $1,000 and $750 budget ranges; in all likelihood you'll find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Sony α6600 (2019) and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015), however, we wrote a summary of what we know about them:

The Sony α6600 (2019) has done great in a couple of roundups conducted by highly trusted sources that perform objective in-depth testing, like Tom's Guide, Wirecutter, and Digital Photography Review - it earned the "The best mirrorless camera for video" title from Tom's Guide, "Best vlog-camera image quality for the money: Sony α6600" from Wirecutter, and "Ranked 2 out of 2" from Digital Photography Review. Any product that's held in high regard by such reliable sources should be considered by anyone that's looking for a Mirrorless Camera at this price point.

Moving on to the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015): it was unable to reach the very top of any roundups from sources that conduct reliable and unbiased testing. Nonetheless, it still managed to impress reviewers from a number of such sites, like ePHOTOzine, Photography Blog, The Phoblographer, shotkit.com, Digital Camera World, TrustedReviews, Techradar, Digital Photography Review, Tom's Guide, PCmag, and DXOMARK, enough for them to include them on those lists.

Out of the sources that tested and rated both of these Mirrorless Cameras, Tom's Guide, Digital Photography Review, and DXOMARK preferred the Sony α6600 (2019), whereas reviewers at ePHOTOzine, Digital Camera World, TrustedReviews, and Techradar liked the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015) better. PCmag gave them identical review scores.

We also took a look at which sources liked these products best - the highest Sony α6600 (2019) rating came from ePHOTOzine, whereas the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015) most impressed reviewers at ePHOTOzine; they earned scores of 9 and 10, respectively.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Mirrorless Cameras on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Mirrorless Cameras being 7.9 out of 10, whereas the Sony α6600 (2019) and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015) managed averages of 8.2 and 8.9 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Sony α6600 (2019) vs. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (2015) comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.