Adventures with Waterproof Video Camera, Part One

When I saw this camera in Windsurfing Magazine I ordered it right away. On-the-water video for under $200? It sounded like fun. I somehow missed the words "not compatible with Apple Macintosh computers" but that's okay because they somehow missed that it works just fine with Macs. The Oregon Scientific Waterproof Action Helmet Cam, also known as the ATC 2000 or ATC 2K ($120) will shoot an hour of high-quality video and piss-poor audio, recording to a memory card (purchase seperately for $70.) It comes with a bunch of rubber and velcro straps, and a "handlebar" mount. I immediately set up the helmet headband and attached the thing to my Gath helmet, but the camera bounced every time I took a step, as the round helmet surface acted as a fulcrum against the flat back of the strap mount. I'll be tinkering to develop a more stable helmet mount as soon as my chores are done (perhaps 2009, maybe sooner.)

So I popped the handlebar mount on a boom and went out to play. The big lesson: The camera must be aimed taking account for the rig being raked back for planing. In the video clip below you can see both top mount and a mount about half way down the side (see photo). I found aiming about two feet below the mast (in this case, what I estimated to be the position of the harness hook) provided the best forward view.
If you try this yourself, remember that every time you adjust the camera mount angle you need to also make sure that the camera is still level. A note on sound...on top of the poor general audio quality, once the camera is mounted to the boom, all you get is harsh impact sounds. Best not to listen.
What's weird to watch is jibing...in the video my head just goes around the mast, and then we're looking forward at an empty harness line.
Coming soon (wind permitting) a mast tip mount experiment.

Comments

[Joe Rouse]

Awesome, I'm buying one. Thanks for the heads up.....I liked how the action kind of died after your jibe. ;)

[Michael]

Doh! Next time I'll use a clip demonstrating my jibing prowess...you shoulda seen the one where I ripped out of a jibe like a god...

:)

[Jeff]

Good first results! I like how it gets quiet during the jibe. A great still would be half-way through the sail-flip, where your wake trail can be seen behind you. Try a little more water and less sky in your next shoot (tomorrow?), perhaps with the board in the frame. It seems like this camera could use a wide angle lens.

BTW, what's the video file format, and how much video quality is retained/lost via videoegg?

[Michael]

The literature specifies "Digital video in 640 X 480 VGA at 30 frames per second." The files open up as Quicktime files on my Mac. Smack me the next time I being with "the literature specifies..."

Let's sail tomorrow and go for the wake shot. I'm also curious to see what a duckjibe looks like. I'd ALSO like to mount the thing on the top of the mast looking down, but I think the existing hardware will need some modifications. One problem I found was that every time I thought about the camera, I screwed up the windsurfing.

[tom]

I think it is interesting to see the boom flex, and after the jibe the sailis constantly changing shape. Cool angle!

[rach]

woah that's really cool! can't wait to see more footage.

[Daniela Capistrano]

Cool! :)

[ATC Support]

Dear ATC-2K users,

Thank you for your reviews and comments on the ATC-2K, they are extremely valuable to us. We would like to answer a few of your questions and give some more specifics about the ATC-2K action camera through this statement.

· ATC-2K can accept SD cards 8MB to 2GB. We recommend SanDisk SD cards and AData SD cards.

· Please ensure you insert your SD card with connect terminals facing up. This means, with the LCD screen facing you turn your SD card label side down/terminals up and insert it.

· The SD card must be formatted to FAT(FAT16).

· Ensure your camera is switched off before inserting/removing the SD card or batteries.

· We recommend users familiarize themselves with the button positions and sounds when pressed.

· The ATC-2K is waterproof to 3m/10ft. Please ensure the O-rings have been properly greased.

· The ATC-2K is intended for use with extreme sports. We have deliberately designed the ATC-2K with this purpose in mind and thus have made the microphone less sensitive. Through research and experience we have found that users would rather add their own music or commentary after their activity as opposed to trying to commentate live.

· The ATC-2K uses 2 x AA Alkaline batteries however; we advise that users change to Lithium batteries during cold weather usage for longer recording time. We have a Cold Weather Pouch for the ATC-2K camera for use in cold weather. Please check our website for availability.

For troubleshooting please refer to the manual.

You are welcome to send any further comments to [email protected]

Best Regards,

ATC support team.

[Peconic Puffin (Michael)]

Apparently they're cruising blogs and responding to comments. I pretty much agree or have no differing views on anything they've said above except for the audio question. They deliberately made the microphone less sensitive? It's not only insensitive, the sound quality is, on a scale of 0 to 10, pretty much a 0. As for "Through research and experience we have found that users would rather add their own music or commentary after their activity as opposed to trying to commentate live" did that research also reveal that anyone with the ability to add music or commentary later also has the ability to delete previously recorded live audio? They should just leave the issue alone...the important thing about this unit is the video. The audio is vaguely usefull as a reference, but beyond that it's poor.

I continue to enjoy the camera, and hope to post an item about a mast mount within the next week.