ACT-1000 Helmet Cam

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KJShover

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Oregon Scientific ATC-1000 Camera

I originally purchased this camera to send riding videos to friends and family. After paying $66.00 including shipping from a vendor I was ready to go.

It arrived a few days later in a round plastic shell that included the camera, the camera mount, and a handlebar mount, mounting straps, instructions, USB cable and software.
HelmetCam4.jpg


Sadly like a kid not being able to play with a great toy on Christmas, the batteries (4 AAA) were not included. But an old remote for the DVD donated.

Looking at the camera it’s very compact and light, according to my postal scale, it's a mere 5 ounces with batteries and a not included SD ram card installed. The manual has the dimensions listed at 35mm x 140mm long.


HelmetCam2.jpg


It’s a nice, clean unit. That mates to a helmet cleanly. I didn’t mount it to my motorcycle for testing, as it’s the start of spring and unfortunately in Alaska there is still snow and ice about. Unlike its older brother the ACT-2000, this unit is splash proof, (the ACT-2000 is waterproof).

HelmetCam.jpg


The videos I wanted to take with the camera are more of me looking around while riding, not so much the “bike point-of-view”, like several of the videos that are being passed around.

The ACT-1000 has several selections of resolution you can choose from. In photo mode you have the choice of:

640x480 pixels
320x240 pixels
160x120 pixels

The ACT-1000 also offers three selections of video modes with varying frames per second. These are:

640x480 pixels @ 15fps
320x240 pixels @ 20fps
160x120 pixels @ 25fps

Storage of the still pictures and video can either take place using the internal 35MB storage or up to 1GB via a SD card.

HelmetCam3-1.jpg


File format of the ACT-1000 your just limited to two. .JPG for the stills and .AVI for the motion.

Taking pictures with the ACT-1000 is simple; you just press the button, near the back of the camera. This button is clearly identified by having a picture of a camera stamped in to it.

There is a self timer function, that offers a 10 second delay for those that want to photograph themselves, and a continuous shutter that takes 3 pictures consecutively for those action stills.

Recording video is just as simple; the Video button has an image of a video camera on it and is located in the front of the camera.
When you depress either button, the camera confirms your choice by emitting a “beep.”

During video mode its still just one beep for start and one for finish. I would rather have it beep once for start and two for finish.

File deletion is limited to the last picture/video taken or all of them. The amount of video/stills is limited only by the amount of memory you have.

There is a built in microphone in the front of the camera that is pretty sensitive. This will pose wind noise problems. Microphone windsock material glued over the mike should help with this problem.

Battery life isn’t the best out there, but it’s not bad either, considering its using 4 AAA batteries. I’ll write up a separate battery review later, as batteries differ in quality.

The camera has an auto shut off feature that will shut down the camera in 10 minutes of inactivity.


The display on the camera is minor. It consists of icons and numbers. Icons for low battery, resolution, SD card presence, file deletion, and self-timer. The numbers are for the amount of photographs you have left and the mount of minutes of video you have taken.

The editing software is pretty straightforward, the instructions are lacking in depth, but its straight forward.

A nice feature of the camera is that it hooks directly to your PC for downloading the images and video, you can also hook the camera directly to your television through RCA jacks (Camera adaptor included) for viewing.

Taking videos with the camera, it seems its pretty light sensitive. Taking video of my front and rear yard seemed to be washed out at points, I attribute this to all the snow reflecting the light. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend the camera being used for winter sports. Indoors-there still needs to be a fair amount of light to get a good picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnhtPuRG1BU


Still1.jpg


Stills and video indoors tend to be on the dark side.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJfLeF1KZdk&feature=related .
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZvsttVZbeo&feature=channel_page
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Still2.jpg




I don’t see any issues in normal or low sunlight, nor do I foresee any problems in the summer when the camera will be used most.

All and all I’m pleased with this camera. For $50, it’s a bargain for sharing your videos and riding pictures with friends.
 
Last edited:
Nice write up KJ! The camera looks great, and with you selling, err, reviewing them here I sure they will get some more sales!:clapping: If I find some spare cash laying around I will pick one of these up too.:punk:
 
Nice write up KJ! The camera looks great, and with you selling, err, reviewing them here I sure they will get some more sales!:clapping: If I find some spare cash laying around I will pick one of these up too.:punk:


Thanks, I'm liking the camera. They have another one , the ACT-2000, thats water proof and takes 640x480 video at 30fps
 
Oregon Scientific no longer makes the ATC-1000.It's not on their site anyways.I like the 2000 with the 2gig memory card.
 
Oregon Scientific no longer makes the ATC-1000.It's not on their site anyways.I like the 2000 with the 2gig memory card.

The 2000 did replace the 1000. It has a higher frame per second at max resolution (20fps) and its waterproof, not to mention like you said... the 2GB sd expantion. :clapping:

You can find it for around $90
 

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