As well as being compared against other compacts, the Olympus Stylus 840 is also often compared to mirrorless and entry-level DSLRs. The Olympus Stylus 840's top rivals come from Olympus (such as the Stylus 810 and the Stylus Tough TG-860) and Sony (such as the Alpha A5000)
Generally, some of the advantages of the Olympus Stylus 840 compared to other compact competitors include: it is much smaller (compact (96×57×24 mm) vs compact (130×64×28 mm)), has better image stabilization (lens vs none), is slightly lighter (170 g vs 224 g) and has a faster max shutter speed (1/2000 of a second vs 1/1000 of a second).
However, on average it has a much narrower wide angle lens (36 mm vs 21 mm), slightly lower maximum light sensitivity (1,600 ISO vs 6,400 ISO), doesn't have a screen which flips out, has a CCD-family sensor (CCD vs CMOS) and is older (january 2008 vs february 2015).
Generally, some of the advantages of the Olympus Stylus 840 compared to mirrorless interchangeable-lens competitors include: it has better image stabilization (lens vs none), is slightly smaller (compact (96×57×24 mm) vs standard size (120×83×47 mm)), is thinner (0.9" vs 1.9") and is slightly lighter (170 g vs 390 g).
However, on average it records lower quality movies (480p @ 15fps vs 1080p @ 60fps), has a much smaller screen (2.7" vs 3"), has a much lower resolution screen (230k dots vs 1,040k dots), doesn't have a viewfinder (none vs digital) and takes significantly lower resolution photos (7.9 MP vs 19.8 MP).
