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Monday, August 14, 2006
ATC-1000 Helmet Cam
I've always wanted to see how a helmet cam video of my dirt bike rides would look, especially on some of the more brutal races I've run in SIDRA. I've also thought that it would be great to have some downhill footage of mountain biking at Moab. But they have always been very expensive, heavy and cumbersome to really make it worthwhile to take on most of my rides. ...Until now, at least.Someone pointed me to a product made by Oregon Scientific, that is a sub-$100 bullet cam, fully integrated, solid state, and self contained (no wires or battery pack or mini-DV camera needed), the ATC-1000. While it has 32MB of onboard memory, it also allows you to expand that to 1GB with extra SD memory cards (too bad it doesn't work with anything larger than 1GB). It also supports 640x480 video resolution (as well as 320x240, and 160x120), but all only at 15fps, which is VERY poor for any moving/action shots. It has mono sound pickup and a cable you can plug into it to download to computer or play back on a standard RCA video line (cam-corder or TV).
It is just too bad that they don't support >1GB SD cards and 30fps in 720x480 resolution. Even if it cost 2x that price, I would gladly pay it for something that worked and was small/self contained like this. I looked all over for some other provider that might have something, but nothing is available. There is a good review on this page, along with some sample videos. Most of those look pretty bad, and there is nasty lens flare/compression artifacts, bad sound mic, and god-aweful slow, but I managed to find one on closeout at Best Buy Online for $69.99. So, I decided to take a shot and get one. Hopefully it works well enough for some good still shots and action video of our ride in Moab this November.
Here is a great web page of a guy that just bolts his Sony mini-DV camcorder to the side of his head. There is a great video of Porcupine Rim there (even this higher resolution and 24fps content is a bit disorienting).
Comments:
Just got the camera in the mail. 15fps is WAAAAY too slow for any sort of moving/action shots. I've contacted Oregon Scientific asking about the future frame rates and they indicated that they couldn't release any product details, but that come this Christmas Season, and the release of the ATC-2000, I would find those specifications much more suiting.
Well, in the mean time, you can shoot in 320x240 at 20fps and in 160x120 at 25fps, which helps a lot. I'll probably use the lower resolutions for most of my video footage.
Oh, and my wife and all her girl friends have wasted the better part of an hour detailing and laughing at my complete and utter dorkiness. /sigh.
Well, in the mean time, you can shoot in 320x240 at 20fps and in 160x120 at 25fps, which helps a lot. I'll probably use the lower resolutions for most of my video footage.
Oh, and my wife and all her girl friends have wasted the better part of an hour detailing and laughing at my complete and utter dorkiness. /sigh.
Batteries REALLY go fast in this. I tried rechargeables first...that didn't even work 20 minutes. Of course AAA rechargeables are only like 700mAh (compared to 2500mAh for AA). Still, I then tried brand new fresh duracells. Lasted under an hour. 320x240@20fps is probably the only reasonably watchable video. 640x480 is too slow at 15fps, and 160x120 has good updates at 25fps, but it has zero detail. It is also frustrating to me at how much a helmet cam loses the perspective of steep hills. You get no inertial balance or frame of reference. I think the best shots come from recording someone else in the perspective (to give you orientation), and when possible, film from the side to get a better indication of angle and hills.
It has taken me 3 rides now to get the camera angled correctly on the helmet (when you ride, your head is pitched way further forward than when you are walking around, so the first two times, all I got was a blur of the ground rolling by). Hopefully I have this dialed in by the time Moab rolls around.
It has taken me 3 rides now to get the camera angled correctly on the helmet (when you ride, your head is pitched way further forward than when you are walking around, so the first two times, all I got was a blur of the ground rolling by). Hopefully I have this dialed in by the time Moab rolls around.
Oregon Scientific now has the ATC2K, with support for 30fps in 640x480 and uses 2-AA batteries, which should be better.
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