Olympus VN-7200 Digital Voice Recorder

A Good, Basic Recorder

I bought this recorder to record my astronomy observations which I can't manage to get written down any more. This morning I was out in the cold watching for the last crescent Moon and counting...Read complete review

I bought this recorder to record my astronomy observations which I can't manage to get written down any more. This morning I was out in the cold watching for the last crescent Moon and counting sunspots. As a test of the recorder I put it into in internal chest pocket of my zipped up down parka right next to the speaker mic of my amateur radio. As anticipated the squeels of APRS packets from the radio were loud and clear. Also loud and clear was me mumbling to myself at the telescope. I want to try this again when I am observing with others and see how well it records the other half of my conversation when the other person is not standing right next to me. I forgot to turn the recorder off so I could hear every footfall along the way home as the shock was transmitted through my body and the backpack with the telescope and tripod pulled on my shoulders. The electronics in this recorder appear to be able to pull in distant sounds while not being overpowered by nearby loud sounds.

You can split a recording in two but I don't see any way to append additional audio to an already existing file.

You can set an alarm and key it to a recording so I can set an alarm to remind me when and where to look for a satellite. It looks like you can only set one alarm though. I will have to add a comment to the end of each alarm text telling me what recording to set for the next alarm and what time to set it for. When you set up an alarm you have to have the file you want to play at that time selected. If you delete a file the numbers of any subsequent files are defermented by 1. I have not checked to see if this impacts what alarm file gets played or if the software makes any necessary adjustments.

Unfortunately all you get with the recording is a datestamp even though you do have to set the time when you install batteries. I had hoped for a timestamp to help me figure out what time I saw something. I will have to dictate timestamps.

There is no way to get recordings from the recorder into a computer.

This is a good basic recorder but for my purposes I would have been better off spending another $20 to get a more capable recorder. At the time of this impulse purchase the only other recorders on display were of the $150 flavor which is more impulse than I was willing to stomach.