I have just received the Olympus LS-10 and have been putting
it through the paces. This is one beautiful little piece of equipment!

The LS-10 has a heavy duty feel to it, similar to the PCM-D50
but of course is much, much smaller.

It has a superb MENU system, with options to adjust
REC MODE, REC LEVEL, ZOOM MIC, REC MONITOR,
PLUG IN POWER, six adjustment options for PLAY MODE,
along with REVERB and something called EUPHONY for
atmospherics.

Other options include BACKLIGHT, CONTRAST, and LED
ON/OFF

I have not had a chance to compare it with the SONY
yet, but brief testing yielded very good recordings, with
the MIC SENS switch a critical aspect. However, the is
a RECORD thumbwheel control, similar to the SONY,
and you can adjust for MANUAL or AUTO in the MENU
options.

Assuming there is no limit on the SDHC capacity,
one could easily stick 32 GB in there with no
problem. Two observations:

-- Hand movement noise is a problem, with the
twin MICS picking it up, similar to the Zoom H2 and
SONY.

-- At first, I was not pleased with the placement of
the SD door, which seemed far too close to the
left hand VOLUME control thumbwheel. However, I
now realize it's not that bad -- the SD cover is of
the rubber type (obviously they didn't want to have
these things breaking off by making them out of
hard plastic) and it works well.

I played a number of files on this through a very good
speaker system and am impressed again. I believe
Olympus has produced a piece of equipment here that
will be very popular and compete extremely well at
this price point ($348 advance from Sound Professionals)

As these are now being shipped, I look forward to hearing
from others about their experiences with the very
nice LS-10.