One of my goals while on our cross country trip was to talk to and interview people we met along the way as well as keep my own audio diary to help track what we were doing everyday. Olympus kindly lent us a review unit of their ultra-portable WS-700M Digital Voice Recorder.

Since I’m not an audio expert, my review is based more on my needs and how the WS-700M was able to handle my expectations and even surprise me with features it has to offer.

With the opening of the box, I was immediately surprised with the unit’s size and weight. Less than 2 oz. and small enough to put into that small pocket of my jeans—perfect! Compared to micro-cassette recorders, mini-discs, and other recorders I’ve used in my past, this guy blew them away. I could imagine some would say it feels a little too plastic, but that’s the tradeoff of having a lightweight recorder. That said, I never scratched or damaged it the entire trip. It held its own against hiking through rain forests, eighteen different flights, and running through busy cities.

Using Eneloop AAA batteries during the trip, I never ran out of a charge for over thirty days of use. That’s a plus. We had so many devices that had to be charged every other day (cameras, cell phones, etc.) that I almost forgot it needed batteries. The simple LCD keeps the battery life fresh, something I wish cellphones would offer again these days.

Speaking of the LCD, it keeps devices like these from having over complicated functions and menus. The WS-700M menu and filing system is intuitive and easy enough to figure out without even looking at the manual. The highlight for myself was the multi-file system so that you can categorize your sound files easily. Being able to go directly to the file during a short flight so that I could transcribe my recordings was invaluable.

The WS-700M comes with built-in 4GB of memory. So for transcription purposes, recording in high-quality stereo mode, which is overkill, I never ran out of memory. If you did need more room, though, it uses the standard microSD memory cards. What I did like was that the unit has built-in stereo mics. They can’t even get them in cameras these days! Knowing that I could actually record sounds or interviews while I was shooting video and later replace the audio with the stereo recordings sold me for future uses.

When it came time to download the files to the computer, having the USB plug built into the actual unit is just… well, awesome. The trip didn’t allow for lots of fuss with carrying twenty different wires that will immediately become tangled and forgotten because they’re not easily identifiable. All I had to do was push out the plug, stick it in the USB of the Macbook Pro and, voila, all of the files were instantly accessible.

Why not use your cellphone?

The iPhone is great for a lot of things, it tries to be everything at once, but that’s where it can shoot itself in the foot, too. Where the WS-700M excels is in it’s longevity and compactness, something I can’t say the same for an iPhone. And besides all of that, I don’t own an iPhone! My cell phone is as basic as they come these days because, for my lifestyle, long battery life and lightweight trumps carrying a minicomputer. Take that philosophy and apply it to the WS-700M and you see why I like it. 

The benefit of using the cellphone would be to have less devices to deal with. In reality, I didn’t have a hundred devices to mess with. I had my camera, my cell phone, and this recorder. When you need to do your taxes, you don’t hire the guy who is also a computer repairman, a butcher, and a mechanic. The WS-700M is a specialist—it takes great audio recordings, it has quick and organized playback, and everything built-in (long battery life, lots of internal storage) so you can spend more time using it and less time looking for the closest computer or outlet.

First of all, I just want to say thanks to everyone complimenting our photographs during the trip. It really means a lot to me and Lucy.

On our cross country trip, I was fortunate enough to have Olympus lend me a camera for our trip. They over nighted the camera to me before we left on the trip and I got to test out one of the most travel-friendly interchangeable lens cameras out there. I was lent the Olympus EPL1, a mirrorless micro-4/3rd’s camera (which I’ll explain in a moment, but what it mainly means is that it’s compact). They also lent me the Olympus m.Zuiko 14-150mm, their flagship compact travel lens.

Trade-offs of a PEN-series Camera

Olympus recently released the retro-styled EP1, EP2, and EPL-1 and was keenly looked upon by many photographers because what it gave up in sensor size and optical view finders, it made up with a body the size of a point-and-shoot pocket camera and small lenses. The PEN series stays extremely compact because of it’s lack of an optical viewfinder and it’s micro-4/3rd sensor.

The way a normal large digital camera works is with a single-reflex lens (SLR) that allows you to see what your lens sees by reflecting the image off of a mirror into an optical viewfinder. The PEN series took out that mirror and shows you a purely digital image on its back (or through a supplemental viewfinder, which you can purchase separately). This comes with compromises for the photographer. If you’ve ever had to use an LCD screen in the sun, you know it can be difficult to see. That’s the trade-off—you have to view from the LCD screen but you get a camera body the size of a point-and-shoot.

The micro-4/3rds sensor doesn’t as much affect the size of the camera body as it does the lenses. Because the sensor is smaller than a normal DSLR sensor, the lenses can be smaller because it doesn’t have to fill up the same amount of space as a larger camera. The trade-off is that larger sensors have more pixels which means more detail in your images and better noise reduction on high ISO images.

What I Loved About the EPL1 + 14-150mm

Size. I’ve been shooting with DSLR’s and Medium Format cameras for so long now, I’ve forgotten how the size of the camera can affect your shooting. And I’ve read plenty of reviews where people talk about this so I think it may just be something that you have to try for yourself to see, but I was more likely to take the camera more places because of its size. You also don’t think about the weight of a normal DSLR with lenses (5-10 lbs) until you’re carrying this 1-1.5 lbs camera on a 3+ mile hike. On a trip like this, where all of our luggage was in a backpack and a small carry-on, the camera with it’s batteries and cables took up less than half the space as our Nikon D90 which we also took with us.

Colors. The in-camera image processing is also one of the best I’ve used. The colors and vibrancy of photos that I would get straight out of the camera blow the Canon, Nikon, and Pentax digital cameras I’ve shot with over the years. Skies were bluer, plants were greener… and it’s not necessarily easy to reproduce with other cameras in post processing. Trust me. When I was editing the Nikon images next to the Olympus, they didn’t have the same punch. Now, take into account that there are people who don’t like that much punch, but if you do, Olympus is a great brand to consider.

Detail and Sharpness. I was expecting to have to use the 14-150mm around the 25-60mm range most of the trip, but the impact the 14mm had sold me. I ended up staying on the wide-end of the lens the majority of the trip. While you have to remember, these shots aren’t going to be blown up and hung in galleries per se, they could easily be printed large without much of distortion and a good amount of detail. There’s caveats to this, though, and I had to shoot the majority of the time between ISO 100-200 to avoid noise and loss of detail. I’ll discuss that more later. In Yellowstone where we were shooting a lot of wildlife, I wasn’t expecting much from the 150mm end, but again, I was pleasantly surprised. Zoomed all the way out, it was still sharp (dependent on the location of the subject), like the image of the rabbit.

Where the EPL-1 Could Improve.

ISO Performance. I’m not a huge pixel peeper, so this isn’t coming from a geeky place, but even for me, RAW images above ISO 200 were pretty rough. It wasn’t just the noise (which was pretty heavy on that low of ISO) but the loss of detail that comes with it. When I’m shooting on the run, I normally let the Nikon D90 auto ISO for me, which you can set it’s limits. However, I couldn’t find these options on the EPL1 and it would shoot up to ISO 1600 which was unacceptable in most cases. So most of the time I left it set at around ISO 100 which changed my shooting style, but maybe for the better. However, since the LCD is better in lower light, it couldn’t perform fast enough in low light.

Dials. The EPL1 is a cheaper version of the EP1 and EP2 so there are compromises in the body, one of which is a basic dial. To adjust the aperture, shutter speed, etc., you have to look at the back of the screen and learn the circular push menu to change these basic functions. I can’t imagine it takes that much to add a dial to the camera, so it must just be a selling point to make you spend a few extra hundred for the EP1. Not cool. That said, I adapted to the on-screen changes pretty quickly as you’re not looking through a viewfinder all the time like with a DSLR.

Depth of Field. The 14-150mm is not a fast lens, f/4 at the wide end, f/5.6 at the long end. At the wide end, it’s pretty tough to get any DOF and at the long end, it’s pretty slow to get great DOF. I won’t go into other lenses available, but on the whole, there’s not a lot of fast lenses for m43 cameras at this point in time. It’s one of those things that influenced my shooting style during the trip, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but realistically it just means you have a lack of choice. If they made a faster 14-150mm, it would be twice the size or more which would defeat it’s compact being.

How the EPL1 Changed My Shooting Style

As you’ve read in my short review here, the EPL1′s limitations forced me to shoot in ways I don’t normally shoot. I’m typically a close shooter… portraits, macro, wildlife, etc. It’s just what I enjoy shooting. The trip was very scenic, though, and I had a camera that excelled in wide shots and couldn’t shoot over ISO 200. So I became a landscape photographer and it was a lot of fun. An unintended consequence of restrictions but at the same time, the EPL1 really shined here. If it wasn’t for using it every day for an entire month, some reviewers may get put off by some of it’s limitations, but for me, it sold me on the fact that it’s an awesome travel camera with a lot of positives. While the larger cameras allow you more options, you also have to lug it around everywhere and make more space for it.

When we were in Yellowstone, it was funny to see me with this tiny camera compared to these guys with their gigantic guns. You would see these people lugging 20+ lbs camera/lenses worth more than $10k-15k to take images of bears and wolves that were so far away they’re barely visible to the human eye. In the end, awesome cameras and lenses and all, they’re not going to get that awesome portrait of the wolf’s face or bear snarling like in our magazines. You still have to be close to the animals. So I just smile and laughed on the inside because I loved the shots I was taking and I didn’t have to lug these monsters around the park.

Final Thoughts

The EPL1 and the 14-150mm lens were a perfect combo for a travel camera. A pro photographer may consider this more of a “fun” camera as it does have it’s limitations, but as an art director who looks at hundreds of photos every issue, the quality of these images are publishable. On a billboard? Maybe not. But for travel photography and just general walking around, I would recommend this camera. It’s about knowing how the tool is used best. I look forward to an improvement in high ISO shooting and some faster lenses (though, with adapters, you can put all sorts of old small film lenses on it).

For me, it was priceless as it made me look at how I shoot and get a new perspective that could have been overlooked before the trip. I loved not swapping lenses off and on constantly. If the high ISO performance was better, though, I could have taken it into more indoor places as it’s low profile gets less looks from other customers and is perfect for when you’re just hanging out with friends.

Read more about the EPL1 at Olympus’ website: www.olympusamerica.com.

Day 13: Salt Lake City, road trip to Jackson, Wyoming

A kind of quick update today. We landed in Salt Lake City and stayed the night with a fellow AYCJ’er at her home in Bountiful, Utah. Thanks, Amy, for your kindness and we’re lucky people to be hosted by you and get to stay in such a great house. Our community of jetters is pretty awesome, I hope it stays that way for future years if JetBlue offers this deal again.

We got up early and headed from SLC to Jackson, Wyoming taking a scenic route around Bear Lake in Utah. I can’t believe we’ve never been over there before! This lake is gigantic and has the most beautiful blue/turquoise/green color shimmering throughout. I tried a panorama to show how far this thing stretches but it still doesn’t show it all.

When you start driving out West, it feels like a different world. Mountains around every turn, seeing further than you ever could in the East, and the sky looks twice as big as normal. If you haven’t been yet, you need to see it once in your life.

Once we hit Jackson, we ate at Lucy’s favorite restaurant, Merry Piglets, and we had their Tex Mex burrito with a sour cream sauce on top. It’s been two years or more since we’ve been there, but it was just as good as ever. I’ve never had a sauce comparable to the sour cream they smother on the burritos.

It was then time to head over the Grand Tetons and drive to our friend’s place in Driggs, Idaho where we used to live. We took a scenic route through Moose Junction where you can occasionally run across some wildlife. Before we even hit the trail, a crowd was gathered around the Snake River and we saw a bull moose sitting near the bank. We rarely saw moose out here so it’s still exciting to see one.

One thing I disliked about living on the Tetons was having to drive over them to get back and forth places. But the view from up top is always beautiful.

At our place in Driggs, we had a friendly neighbor that Lucy got to feed in the backyard. I declined feeding him, my family and maybe a few others know why, but me and feeding horses don’t mix.

Later that night, we met up with Lucy’s old coworkers and had a bite at Forage, a local bistro that does a lot of locavore dishes. We split a hamburger from the Dunn Ranch and called it a night. Tomorrow, we head out to Yellowstone National Park and do some animal watching.

Day 11 & 12 San Francisco

The weather in San Francisco has been a little trying, especially for photographs. When the fog rolls in, we get nothing but bright white backgrounds. Instead of fight it, though, I’ll just embrace it. We started off our foggy day at the Golden Gate Park. We headed into the Japanese Tea Garden and enjoyed the light drizzle that made the colors of the plants even more vibrant. I will say I wish it was a little bigger, but that’s my only complaint.

We wanted to go to the DeYoung Museum right next door, but unfortunately they were closed the one day we were over there! The botanical garden was looking a little depleted, too, so we skipped it (partly due to a hectic bus schedule). So we jumped on board, and as we went through Haight Street, I wish we could have gotten off… the Giant Robot store, Kid Robot, and the Citrus Club. Oh well, gotta keep on keepin’ on.
So after that, we jumped off at Chinatown and walked around for a bit. Mind you, it’s about 3 PM and we hadn’t eaten all day. We went into some of the stores, bought a few trinkets to take home, and hustled back to make sure we got our last bus back to the Tenderloin (that’s what they called the area we were staying in).

We got off at Pier 39 again because there was a food stand nearby there we read about and wanted to try. It’s called Tanguito and they serve Argentinian-style Latin food like empanadas and saffron rice with chicken. Lucy and the cheese and corn emapanada and I had the chicken empanada. The photos should speak for themselves, but let me tell you, the bread was so soft and light with just the perfect amount of flakiness. I imagined it to be a little tougher, but it just melted away in your mouth.

Before we ate, though, the blue skies peaked out and the fog went back enough so that we were able to see The Rock. I think it made for a better photo with the fog just hanging around it… more menacing looking. Now if a great white would have jumped out of the water at the same time… The sky also cleared for the first time for us to see what the city actually looks like with all of it’s hills and tall buildings.

More photos from San Francisco.

Day 9 & 10: Austin, TX to San Francisco, CA

On Wednesday, we left the heat of Austin for the cool San Francisco. We rented a loft in the city from some fellow AYCJ’ers and they were nice enough to give us a ride from the airport. The next day, we did the touristy thing and jumped on those double-decker off and on bus tours, despite trying to be as non-touristy as I could on this trip. We took a tour of downtown and then jumped on another bus to tour the Golden Gate Bridge and over to Sausalito. Unfortunately, SF’s notorious fog covered most of the city, including the bridge, the entire day. We got off in Sausalito and hoped for the fog to burn off.

Despite never actually seeing the bridge, we enjoyed our walk around Sausalito and a nice lunch at Venice Gourmet where we had sourdough club sandwiches. We walked up the streets, admired the real estate, walked back against the water and watched little crabs scatter on the rocks as we passed by them. We also saw a western scrub jay… not really sure if they’re super common out here, but it was a first for us.

On the way back, we drove around Skywalker Ranch (sorry Marc, we didn’t get a real tour of it) and made our way back to Fisherman’s Wharf. On our walk back, a young couple came up to us and asked us where we got our jackets. Fellow All-You-Can-Jetters! It’s like being part of some secret club that you can go anywhere and have people know you. There should be a secret handshake or something. After that, we headed over to see the seals at Pier 39 (though we did see one swimming in Sausalito). Time to get nerdy for a minute – but walking around there was like deja vu for me. This area was a stage in one of the Tony Hawk skateboarding games and it was almost replicated exactly.

We finished the downtown tour, came back home, got a bite to eat and walked by a woman getting arrested, and then walked a little more quickly. Tomorrow, we’re going to spend most of the day in Golden Gate Park and a little trip up to Chinatown. See you then!

Hamilton Pool in Austin, TX.

Day 8: Austin, TX

One place I’ve been really interested in visiting is Hamilton Pool, a nature preserve a little outside of Austin, Texas. I’m trying to find words to describe the area, but the photos will show it much better. The waterfall into the pool was the main feature that made me want to visit the place, but it’s really cool just walking around the inside of this cave-ish ring. On the ceiling, it looked like clay swallow nests built all over.

Typically, the pool area is open to people swimming but that day the bacteria levels were high so no swimming—which meant better photo ops for us. I would love to have seen it in earlier morning or late afternoon, maybe next time. We did catch some of the park rangers testing the water while we were there.

After that, we hiked down a trail opposite of the pool trail where we were told there may be good birding opportunities. As we walked the trail, you could see where the river had flooded the week before from the nearby hurricane passing through. The river next to the trail was fairly undisturbed and you could see catfish swimming around. I also spotted one of those horned lizards. It’s about two or three time the size of the normal lizards we get in Florida. The birds were hiding from us most of the time, but we did see some vireos, tanagers, and wrens.

As much as I was enjoying the area, it was hot. And we were dehydrated. We managed to drag ourselves back to the truck and gulp what we had left. I really should think things out a little further with these spontaneous hour+ hikes.

The drive back to Austin (and to Hamilton Pool, for that fact) was really beautiful. I think most people I know have a similar feeling about Texas… lots of flat, sparse land without a lot of scenery. Austin was very hilly, lots of areas with water features, and it made you feel like you were in a Western. The amount of wildlife there is amazing, for that fact alone I want to go back.

I think the other thing that will bring us back is the food. We wanted to try another food trailer so Joey took us over Torchy’s Tacos. Lucy and I agree those were some awesome tacos. Every ingredient worked perfect together. A great ending to a pretty exciting day for us.

Day 6 & 7: Washington DC to Austin, TX

Lucy and I had a great time with Walter, Lucy’s cousin, and his fiancé, Molly, in Washington DC. We got to see a lot of the city and spend some quality time with the two of them. They were nice enough to take us early this morning to the airport to drop us off on our next flight to Austin, Texas. While sitting at the airport, I thought I recognized a fellow AYCJ’er from our Twitter account (@xcountrybuffet), and sure enough it was her. We’ve seen other AYCJ’ers on the trip, but no one we’ve known through Facebook or Twitter yet.

I’ve been through Texas a few times and I have to say most of my memories of the place were flat, dry, and kind of boring. But Austin isn’t anything like the rest of Texas I’ve been in. Rivers, lakes, forest-covered hills and seemingly lots to do. This afternoon alone, we had delicious barbecue, watched bats stream into the night, and ate a very interesting dessert.

Our first stop was at Rudy’s, self-proclaimed worst Bar-B-Q in Texas. They gave us newcomers a sample of all of their sliced meats and it’s definitely some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had. The rub on the turkey was so good it was hard to put their sauce on it. We sat with my friends, Joey, Vanessa, and Kim while their kids ran along a big field behind us.

Afterward, everyone moved out towards downtown where the largest urban population of bats reside under a bridge. For a Monday night in the middle of summer, there were a ton of people out there waiting for sundown when all of the bats wake up for the night and shoot out across the night sky in groups of hundreds or more.

To finish off the night, we headed to one of Austin’s favorite food trailers, Gourdonuts, where you order made-to-order gourmet doughnuts with more toppings than you can imagine to choose from. We debated getting the shortcake (cream cheese filling with strawberries on top) but decided to get something a little more interesting – The Puddin’. A fresh hot doughnut with pudding, bananas, and vanilla wafers on top. One of the treats can easily feed four people, but we managed to finish it.

Day 5 – Washington DC, Chinatown

We lucked out today—when we got to Chinatown, they had the streets blocked off for an arts festival. They had live music, street food from restaurants all around the city, booths with local artists and craftsmen, and even a cooking demonstration. We spent the afternoon strolling around the area, tried some Chicken Curry Puffs and Chicken Teriyaki Buns, watched a ballroom dance demo, and a blues band tearing it up.