Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific ATC-1000 Action Hands Free Video Camera

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A low-price, handy headcam, but with very poor performance. I'd rather spend the money and get good quality, specially for those braggin' shots I'm expecting to show off. :-)

With only 15 frames per second, the images are at best jerky, at worst unviewable, for instance as soon as there is any semi-fast panning or movement. Very bad for "action" shots, for which the camera is supposed to be designed.

Resolution is poor, and low light shooting is hopeless. Probably not a huge problem if you limit your filming to outdoor sunny days, but results were useless while simply biking on a typical Seattle grey afternoon, in and out of trees. White balance seems to be way biased to outdoors as well, so colors indoors can be, mmm, interesting :-) Again, not really a big issue for the intended audience.

There is no way to see what you're filming (no built in screen, no "live" output to a monitor screen) so aiming will be slow trial and error the first few times. I found that i need to consistenly aim lower than what you think is right.

Front lens is small and recessed - difficult to clean when wet or, hopefully, splattered w/ mud :-) Plus, there is no front cap to protect it during transport - minor inconvenience, but still something to think about.

4 new 2500 mAh NiMH batteries only lasted for ~10 mn of shooting + ~10 mn of standby in ~50 degree temperatures - I've only run a couple sets through, so that will need to be confirmed, but I was disappointed as I expected a lot more, as there is no big LCD screen to power.

Interface is very bare. Annoying feature is that you can't preview what file you're deleting, and can only delete the last video or photo in the list.

To end on a positive note: it _is_ fairly cheap, self contained, the sound works OK (quite directional, though, not so good for "ambience", I can't quite decide if that's good or not - probably depends on the situation), and light enough that I didn't really notice it on my bike helmet. It comes w/ a number of simple, but effective, mounting options that do give it some flexibility. It seems to be well built and, although only "water resistant", rugged enough to take some abuse.

I'll give it to my kids and see what they get out of it, but I will get better gear for regular use (or simply keep using my regular, jury-rigged, small digital camera, which gives much better pictures.)

I want to expeirment a little with videos, but I don't want to risk my high dollar camera and lose or damage it. This camera is perfect for my needs. I have strapped it on my dog Leroy for real interesting dogs eye view videos. I have attached it to the front bumper of my car for some really cool driving footage...
The video is fine for projects you want to post to the web or email to friends. As other reviewer says, you can get 45-55 min. of video on a 1 Gig. SD card. This camera will only support cards up to 1 Gig.
well made, easy to attach to other objects. and tons of fun.

Okay, this wee camera is not going to give you HD Broadcast quality footage but that is not what it is for... It allows you to strap it on, take some footage and then play it back to your mates via the TV or PC :-) Shows as a drive on the PC so making simple edits is a breeze... Now that is fun !!!

Not much to say beyond the title of the review. It's a pretty cool and functional item, but the images/video, even at high res, are just above the level of crap.

I was able to find these locally for 59$. I picked one up to use as a helmet cam for when i go kite buggying (using a parafoil kite to power a 3 wheeled buggy across the land. lots of fun! and a great sport check out windpowersports.com for more info) Anyway, for the price this thing is great. If the resolution was a little better than 640x480 and fps was better than 15 this would be awesome. the only thing i dont like about this cam is that it has a 1gb limitation on the size of sd card you can use with it. i really wanted to get a 2gb or 4gb card for this but it looks like 1gb is the limit. the best part is that it is self contained. no wires whatsoever. the still camera is decent but not great. if youre looking for a budget helmet cam for recreational use than look no further. if youre looking for great quality resolution, you may have to spend 2x or 3x as much at least. supposedly another beefed up version of this cam will be put out by Oregon scientific soon. If they have listened to what we didnt like about this cam and they improve on it, we should have a gem on our hands.

Actually a fine little unit. Does what they said it would. I will be doing a mod on it tho , going to make a sun shield for it. When facing the sun the video darkens somewhat. Should be an easy fix. I put a gig memory card in and get 30 to 45 min of nonstop video.
I hope they make a second generation unit, I'll be getting one if they do !

I have yet to get this camera to record below about 40 degrees. When I turn on video record mode, it turns itself off almost immediately, presumably because of low battery power. I makes great recordings in my living room, but not outside. Hopefully it will be better in the summer.

Lack of a view finder is main disadvantage.
With a 1-GB memory chip it will record an hour of passable quality home video. Battery life may limit recording time.
With a memory card reader the recorded video can be copied to a Mac and edited just like any other digital video.
Camera attaches to a ski helmet with Velcro.

I got this camera for use on my Yamaha Rhino while off roading. The camera does a good job taking moving video's. It has a fluid motion not a jerky one like I initially thought it would. For the money the camera does a great job.

I use it in my motorcycle, and is perfect for this.
compact size, I can attach it almost everywhere in my motorcycle body, with a 1 GB SDcadrd there's more than enough time to shoot a trip.
And very easy to plug in the tv to review the shoots.