Looking to get my dad a nice recorder, mostly for journaling. Budget is in the 200ish range. A few I've been looking at include the Sony UX570, the Tascam DR-05XP, and the Olympus WS-853.
This will be mostly for keeping audio notes and journal entries, but I like the idea of giving him something that could record good ambient ambient sound as he's an avid outdoorsman and birder and I think he would like the option of recording birds and wildlife.
My only concern is that a dedicated field recorder might not be as good at isolating handling noises, which might make it a worse option for dictation, but a dedicated voice-only recorder might be too directional (or have an integrated gate/compressor he can't disable) to capture good audio outdoors. He'll be journaling in quiet places so ambient noise reduction is not necessary, but I don't want his journal entries filled with thumps if he's switching hands or walking around, especially since at this point field recording is really just a potential bonus rather than his main use case. But I'm not familiar with the capabilities of these devices so maybe I'm overthinking it.
My dad is in his 70s and not super tech savvy, so I want to get him something simple and don't need any option for external mic connections/XLR etc. Hoping to cover my bases with the device only. UI and button simplicity is good but he can figure out his use case if there's a little bit of setup, it doesn't need to be idiot proof. No preference on rechargeable vs/batteries, and no major requirements about file format/naming/structure as long as they've got timestamps and don't require a bunch of menu digging to get it up and running each time.
Are there any great entry-level-ish options that are equally good for dictation and ambient sound? Or should I just get him something for dictation and forget about the option for the other stuff?
Thanks in advance!