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Short Review
Olympus W-10 Digital Voice Recorder / Digital Camera
Introduction As the popularity of digital cameras has evolved in the last few years, companies are coming out with more and more hybrid devices - those that can do more than one function. Digital voice recorders have been around for a couple of years, and offer users the convenience of being able to record voice notes without using tapes. Olympus designers apparently decided to take it a step further and incorporate a digital camera in one.The W-10 is a small, plastic, hand-held device of 4 3/4 inches in length by just over 1 inch in width. It is pocket size, but just barely if you're talking about snug fitting jeans or something with shallow pockets. I've seen smaller digital voice recorders, but much larger as well. With the W-10 comes a wrist strap, software for downloading voice and photos into your computer, a mini USB cable for these downloads, and a soft carrying pouch (note, the pouch does NOT have a belt loop). A pair of AAA batteries power the unit. An English/Spanish manual is included and is only average on my "easy to understand" list; I've seen worse (hello, Sony), but you can still tell a "computer geek" in a cubicle somewhere wrote this one.
Features As mentioned, first and foremost the W-10 is a voice recorder. As such, it offers a fairly basic but useful number of features. The microphone on the front has a pretty good pick-up range, and you have three levels of record quality which will allow you to record from 45 to 180 minutes of voice notes via the built-in 16 megs of memory. Three "folders" are offered in the unit's memory, and you have the option of leaving your voice notes in either "A" or "B" in a computer .wav format, while the third folder is represented by a small camera icon and records images in the standard .jpg format. The speaker is on the back of the unit just above the battery compartment area and is pretty clear given the size, or, you can use the included ear plug via the jack on the side to listen to your notes privately. A speaker volume wheel is located (and almost hidden) at the bottom of the unit. The front face of the W-10 offers all standard workings, from a black and white status LCD to a jog wheel for navigating menus, as well as a dedicated record button, erase button, and the shutter button for taking snapshots ( more on that later ).On the other side of the unit is a mini USB port, and the "camera". I should point out quickly, that what you are getting here is not a true digital camera in the sense of something you'd want to take on vacation with you. The camera is a 640 x 480 resolution device that uses a web cam style CMOS sensor to capture highly compressed .jpg images - up to 250 if you have nothing else stored on the device and all memory is free. The pinhead sized lens sits next to the optical viewfinder near the top of the recorder.When you wish to snap a photo, you hold the small optical viewfinder on the left side of the unit up to your eye, holding the W-10 sideways much like an old style slimline 110 film camera. You aim, press the shutter halfway to allow it to adjust the proper exposure, and then fully press the shutter to capture the image. Speed was not a priority in the design of the W-10 unfortunately, as it takes the camera up to three full seconds once you half-press the shutter before it's ready to snap; once you do, it takes an additional 1.5 to 2.5 seconds to take the photo. Move even a little, and you risk blurry photos due to camera shake ( not a huge concern since photo quality is pretty blurry and blocky anyway ).
Call Pest Control... We've Got BUGS! If the image quality wasn't enough to be disappointed about, it's when you try to download these images into your computer that the frustration mounts. Once you've installed the included software into your computer, you plug the mini USB into the side of the W-10, and into any available USB port on your computer. The words "PC LINK" appear on the LCD screen which would seem to be a good thing. Start up the software, and on the left is suppose to be a familiar Windows "tree" format displaying all files on the device. Mine showed "zero" files, though according to the W-10, I had several voice and photo files.After starting and restarting the software a number of times, it suddenly for no apparent reason began to "see" the files and allowed me to download them into the program. I could then save them or delete them at will. So far, this has only happened twice, as the other times I've tried to get it up and running I again get the "zero files" result - even after installing it on another computer. I think you're getting the idea here - what's the point of having a device that allows you to download content into your computer, if it doesn't download?? Keyword: Frustration.
Final Words and Sample Image As a standalone digital voice recorder, the W-10 holds it's own. The only problem is, there are any number of other voice recorders in stores that work just as well for this function, but much less money. Factoring in the buggy software, and the very poor image quality of the built-in camera, and the W-10 comes across more as a child's toy than a tool a business professional might actually find good use for. Even taking into consideration the sub-$100 price (barely), and the fact it uses a CMOS sensor to store images, some of these types of cheap devices now have image quality that is 2-3 times better than this, so it's no longer an excuse.Just below is a sample image taken with the W-10, of a parking lot and beyond on a clear, bright, Spring day. I'll point out that I added some additional compression so the image will load faster on the monitors of those who use dialup internet connections, however, I did not compress it so much more as to add a significant number of new artifacts or distortions. The pixelation, artifacts (around edges, cars, etc.), and dull discoloration that you see in this image are all very typical of what I saw on all test images I took with it. I have seen a little worse from very cheap digicams - but not much.
My Grades:For voice recorder quality (standalone): 7.5 For Image Quality: 4 For Software Functionality: 2
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