OM System LS-P5

I was getting fed up with how long my ancient Zoom was taking to start up and wanted something a little more modern, for opportunistic field recording.

I saw this tiny thing on a musician-centric discord. A few people seemed happy with theirs, so I was curious. I accordingly did a search and good ol' Thomann had one of the keenest prices. They're a reputable supplier, so that sealed the deal.

My initial impression was "that's... REALLY small". It sits completely on the palm of my hand. The controls are tiny and I haven't completely got the hang of pressing the buttons after trimming my nails. However, I shall persist.

There's a certain amount of learning curve due to the size and the relative lack of physical controls, it's fairly menu-divey but not excessively so. You can also control some of the functions via a slightly cranky mobile app, which is surprisingly useful if, for example, you're out and about with it tucked in a pocket using an external mic (or Soma Ether!). There are a few functions that can't be accessed while Bluetooth is active, like switching internal/external memory, but that's just something you get used to.

Speaking of that, I've found the card slot slightly hit and miss. When that happens, it switches to internal recording. This works fine (it has a usable 16GB of internal flash, I think) but it can give you a scary moment when you pop the card out and don't find any of your recordings.

Regarding the card, be really careful that you cleanly unmount it from the computer before ejecting. The unit is incredibly bad and sensitive about filesystems marked dirty. It will refuse to read perfectly valid cards that would just cause Windows to gently suggest you run a quick repair. It also does a very bad job of ignoring all the ._ files that MacOS spams all over any card that goes near it, so that can be a bit of a pain if you're a Mac user.

Obviously, being so tiny, this has no XLR socket and can't provide phantom power. It will do plug-in power, though, typically found on smaller mics with 3.5mm plugs. If you need XLR and/or phantom power, you'll need your own adaptor- so might be worth considering a bigger recorder to start with for convenience. The primary party trick of the P5 is that it's tiny. If that's what you want, it certainly delivers there.

Recording quality with the onboard mics is a lot better than I'd expect. It's certainly more "field recorder" than "dictaphone". The "zoom" function lets you adjust which mics are in play and give you a reasonable level of off-axis rejection- perfectly usable, if not a replacement for a proper long shotty.

The self-noise is present but not terrible. It's no Sony D100, at least with the onboard mics. Maybe with very sensitive externals, the situation would improve, I haven't tried that yet, as nature ambience isn't my primary use case.

I have used a cheap generic shockmount from Amazon and a hand grip for wandering around use. I also added a nice Gutmann wind shield, which is a lot cheaper than the official OM System/Olympus one. With these in place, it makes a great compact field recording device for a windy city street.

In summary, not perfect, a little fiddly, but surprisingly impressive. It gives you reasonable recording quality in a tiny, lightweight package. I love that it can record 24 bit FLAC, too. If it suits your use cases, it represents good value and works well.

If you want something that you can always have on hand and records a lot better than your phone, it's a really good option. You may need that windshield, shockmount and hand grip though, if you're not using an external mic, as handling noise can be a challenge on the hoof. I'm sure you can minimise it if you want to be discrete, but possibly it's better where possible to be more open and honest and better-equipped.

I am fairly pleased with this device, as well as typically sensible pricing and service from Thomann.