Very Useful Recorder

The Olympus ws-100 is a digital recorder that I have found to be very useful.  I work in law enforcement and take the Olympus ws-100 with me whenever I'm on duty as a back-up to my in car dash camera.  It fits nicely in my shirt pocket so it is accessible on the spot.  There have been numerous occasions when my dash camera stops working.  Since I have the ws-100 it is not a problem.  I just wip out the ws-100, quickly turn it on, and I'm good to go.

Some of the things that I like about the Olympus ws-100 is it's size, performance, and features.  The ws-100 is about 3" long by 1.5" wide and probably less than a 1/2" thick.  Again, that is a very convenient size to always have it with you.  It can store over twenty hours of audio.  It doesn't seem to eat very much power either.  I have had mine for about three years now and have only replaced the AAA battery(not included) three times.

The Olympus ws-100 has all of the normal buttons that you would expect to find on a recorder; on/off, record, play, stop, rewind, fforward, volume, erase.  It also has a button to index places on your recordings and a menu/ folder button.  This allows you to toggle through the five separate folders.  The menu feature allows you to personalize the ws-100's settings.  Things like the quality of recording.  One of the best features is the lock switch found on the back of the recorder.  When it is in the lock position the recorder can not change tasks.  This is very handy to start recording, switch it to lock, and place it in my pocket without a concern of it shutting off.

The quality of recording that you get from the ws-100 is unbelievable.  I thought that my dash camera recorded audio very good, but after using the ws-100 I think that my dash camera could use an upgrade.  With the ws-100 the audio is very clear and sharp.  Keep in mind that I always keep mine in my pocket, so I can only imagine the clarity that one would get if they didn't have to keep the ws-100 in their pocket.

Download your recordings is very easy.  The ws-100 has a built-in USB plug.  By simply pulling the ws-100 away from the battery port the USB plug is exposed.  Plug that into a USB port and you are good to go.  I didn't have to load any software, but I don't know if that is computer specific(not very competent in that area).

My department bought the ws-100 for me on a trial basis and have since purchased many more.  I think that a ws-100 can be purchased for around $150(nib) on-line or at most electronic stores.  If the need is there then the price is well worth it.