An august group of writers from the fields of audio, music and gadgets assembled last week at the Olympus Image Space, in London’s Bishopgate, to view Olympus’ latest products – and even play with them.

The products on show proved equally as impressive as the group of assembled writers, distributors and musicians. Among the cameras on display, the E-M1 looked impressive. Rugged and hard wearing, yet smaller and, thus, more versatile than an average D-SLR camera, the E-M1 incorporates an image sensor and image processing engine which enables it to achieve a high degree of image quality.

From a personal point of view, the product range which attracted my attention was the LS range of linear PCM recorders. Designed particularly for use in the music recording industry, these products have applications for all forms of recording. In one, hand–held ‘box’, they can turn any venue into a recording studio. For example, they can be used to record presentations – perhaps at conferences – in natural and expansive stereo, producing ‘better than CD’ quality results. As such, they can act as personal audio learning machines. They could also be used to record, on location, audio to add to the preparation of e-learning materials. And, at around £160 (on Amazon), the smaller products in this range look to be decent value for money.

The Olympus LS-14 is now firmly established at the top of my ‘wish list’.

The Olympus LS-14 is now top of my 'wish list'.