Olympus LS-20M HD Video/Audio Recorder

I purchased the Olympus LS-20M Video/Audio recorder after reading many reviews of it and competing products. Some people complained about where the camera's lens is located on the LS-20M. For my purpose this is not a problem.I purchased the recorder to help with guitar and voice lessons. I am a moderately advanced guitar student and my teacher often demonstrates tricky patterns that are hard to remember and almost impossible to capture by taking notes. The recorder does a great job of letting me record his demonstrations. The sound is outstanding, indistinguishable from live. And the video is clear. I find the location of the lens is perfect for the purpose of filming the neck and finger patterns on the neck.Connecting the recorder to my computer is a breeze through the USB port. No problems at all -- the recorder is always recognized right away. Although there is no way to name your recording files using the recorder itself, it's easy to rename them when the camera is connected to the computer.My only gripe about the recorder, as others have remarked, is the clunky "windows folders" method of organizing your recordings. A second annoyance is that the recorder doesn't come with a carrying case. Is Olympus hoping you will drop it and have to buy a new one?

As an audio recorder, I would give it five stars, but since Olympus emphasizes much on the video recording,that has to be factored into the review, which makes it just a three-star product.The type of video I shoot mostly are sport competition, and various instructional (sport, technical, etc.) clips. The voice recording is excellent, very clear and the directional microphones eliminate much of the annoying ambient noises such as those found commonly in cell phone or video camera recording. For example, if you go to a tournament with a cell phone or even a nice video-capable digtal camera, the sound will be thin and noisy, full of ambient noises. With this device, listening to the video's sound is more pleasant and cleaner. For instructional video, it's excellent because the range of a person's voice is fuller, richer, not thin like most consumer video cameras and cell phones. The distortion from loud noise is also very low.You can record directly to WAV (linear PCM) format and browse the device just as a normal USB memory drive on any computers.The video function has far more flaws than merits. First the merits: while the sensor is small, the lens unit is sharp and the images come out sharp and clear. However, as any video camera with a small sensor, expect noticeable noise when recording in dim light.The flaws are on the other side of the coin. This camera has a fixed focal range (49mm 16:9 ration, 59mm 4:3 ratio): from my experience the best image comes from 1.5 meter to infinity distance). When it is focused, the video is clear and sharp, otherwise it is a bit blurry. Autofocus is not good at all, when you are outside the optimal range, although macro recording is possible if you put a macro lens in front of its lens. Digital zoom causes more artifacts in the video, so I don't recommend using it.The lens angle is also not wide angle, so if you need to capture a wider range, move the camera farther back.The LCD is not very useful to composing the video as the view angle is either from top or bottom. Perhaps when one needs to record a concert from a distance, flipping and viewing it from the bottom can help to capture the video better, but for most applications, combined with its lack of wide angle lens, makes the framing more difficult.The webcam functions under Windows XP, and together with its digital microphones via USB make an excellent webcam for video chat. Unfortunately, Olympus offers no driver for the successive operating systems nor MacOS, what a pity.Nevertheless, for some limited applications, when placed on a tripod, it can capture very good video. I think for musical recital, lectures, instructional video within a small range of movement (not football for example) this could be a four or five star device.After owning it and producing some video, I find it redundant with my current portable video recorder which has also very good microphones. For those who already own a good video camera and want to improve the sound, a standalone digital sound recorder is a better value; for those who want a video camera with excellent sound recording ability, this is a good choice as long as its limitations do not affect your applications. Otherwise, it is difficult to recommend it as a video camera unless you must have certain features like external microphone input, remote control, etc.I ended up using a Nokia Pureview 808 cell phone to record most of my video, which gives even better image from its bigger sensor and wider lens, and comparable sound quality from its special optimized digital stereo microphones with high tolerance for noise distortion.

I should start off by saying I have owned both the Olympus LS-10 and LS-11 and have been very happy with both. They have become an invaluable tool for recording quick song ideas, rehearsals and in a pinch when I've had to send off a song to someone with just acoustic guitar and vocals sound quality has been very good. On the strength of these, I ordered the LS-20M. I did consider the Zoom Q3HD but I have never been able to get over the flimsy feeling build of Zoom products.First the good...audio quality is very good as I expected and video quality is also very good to outstanding. I used the LS-20M to record a performance by a band in a small venue and the results were very good. Image quality was great and sound quality blew away that of my video camera without an external mic. In the small club, the LS-20M's zoom was plenty to frame the stage nicely but I had great views of the stage and little blocking my view. Essentially, the product performed as advertised. Another plus is size. If you need to record and don't want to draw a lot of attention to yourself, this camera is a great choice as it's not that much bigger than an iPhone but longer and can be easily carried in a jacket pocket and concealed when not in use.Now for the not-so-good...the lens placement is funky for sure. I shot nearly all of a one hour set and my arm was indeed worn out from holding the camera at the funky angle necessary to capture the performance. I would hope that future versions of this model come with a way to adjust the camera lens--that would have been a huge plus on this release. For whatever reason, Olympus did not see fit to provide us with a case for the LS-20M out of the box. I'm going to try the CS-117 Carrying Case for the LS-10 which I think will be a suitable alternative. Lastly, the shell of the recorder is made of plastic. It survived being dropped the first night from about 3 feet with no scratches but it doesn't feel as sturdy as the LS-11 (which has an all-metal body).All in all, I'm satisfied and I'm going to keep the LS-20M however I can't help feeling that the next iteration of this recorder is really going to be the one to get.

As a "street reporter", this sound recorder works well when covering large meetings, outdoor events and one-on-one interviews. It also records music well and the video capability compares favorably to some larger digital recorders. The best part is it fits in my shirt pocket. I would recommend this product to professionals and students. It may be a little overboard for the casual user.

A great product. This is a replacement for my first such camera/recorder. I misplaced my other one. Well it did not long. The slide power button is malfunctioning so I can't turn it on. Of no use now. As it came from Toyko, not much chance of getting it fixed.