ATC 1000 Action Camera

The ATC 1000 was the original action camera produced by Oregon Scientific.  You won’t currently be able to purchase this new, but I have seen them going second hand, on eBay, for around £10-30 mark.

The ATC 1000 was the start of the ATC range and though it wasn’t perfect, it did allow Oregon Scientific to test the market and find out what we wanted from a helmet camera, how we used them and what features and improvements we wanted.

From the footage I’ve seen captured via the ATC1000 action camera the video quality isn’t fantastic but it is quite watch able.  It doesn’t have quite the range of colours that the newer models have and it only has one standard frame rate, of 15 fps.  The low frame rate is quite a draw back as it does mean videos won’t capture as much detail and they won’t be as smooth.  On the up side, I find with my newer model ATC that I sometimes use 15fps, as it does increase the amount of footage I can record, by quite a significant amount.

The ATC1000 allows you to capture video at three resolutions, which are 640 x 480 (default), 320 x 240 or 160 x 120.  It comes with 32MB of internal memory, which will film for around 16 minutes.  You will definitely want to purchase a 1GB SD memory card to put in the camera’s SD card slot.  This way you can capture around an hours worth of video which should be enough for most events.  Unfortunately the ATC1000 won’t support SD cards larger than 1GB.

With the ATC1000, you will be able able to record audio along side the video via its inbuilt microphone. However, the audio quality isn’t great, but this is a downside of the majority of ATC range cameras.  It will pick up a lot of wind noise and things like that. It will capture voice, but maybe only for the person wearing it (if you try to video someone a meter or two away, you may not be able to pick up their voice very well).  The fact that the audio isn’t great isn’t a massive downside, as you won’t be using this action camera to record social gatherings, but you will be using it for your adrenalin pumping, action sports which you can put some rocking background onto!

If you compare the control buttons on the ATC1000 to the newer models, they look less fiddly.  However, this is an action camera.  If the buttons are too easy to push, then the camera might start and stop recording at the wrong points, or worst turn on in your bag and drain the batteries before you even get a chance to film anything!

One of the ways that the ATC range has been made so affordable, is that they don’t come with copious amounts of on board memory and they don’t have a built in, rechargeable battery.  The ATC1000 requires 4 AAA batteries so it would pay to purchase some rechargeable batteries with it.  You could use standard batteries, but they would only last for a few hours filming and therefore become very expensive in the long run!  If you are planning on using the ATC 1000 when skiing, or in cold conditions (below 0′ C or 32′F) then high quality, lithium batteries will perform much better than standard AAA batteries.

The ATC1000 comes with 3 ways of viewing your action videos. You can plug it into your TV to play back your adventures, you can use the supplied USB cable to plug it into your computer.

The ATC1000 is waterproof, so you can use it in wet weather. I wouldn’t recommend using it for water sport as I’m not sure that it is water resistant. An ATC2000 might be a better idea for water sports, as that is water proof to around 3 meters.

As the ATC100 requires batteries and uses SD cards it is a bit bulkier than a mini action camera which would connect, via wires to a recorder.  The ATC100 has a width of 1.38 inches and is 5.51 inches in length.  For some applications, it’s size and weight may make it unsuitable, such as for low-powered model aeroplanes.  Personally, I think that because it is a ‘wireless’ action camera it makes it much easier to set up and use than wired action cameras.  You also don’t have to worry about wires coming loose and not capturing any footage.  The other advantage with a wireless camera like the ATC1000 is that it is so easy to set up, just attach it, turn it on and go!

If you’re interested in the ATC1000 then you might like to view the video below:

If you are interested in purchasing an ATC1000, you will struggle to find a main retailer which will sell them new.  Your best bet is to look on eBay and in other places where they may be sold second hand.  I personally wouldn’t pay more than around £30 for the ATC1000 with all its parts.  Any more than this and in my opinion you may as well spend a little bit more and get a new ATC2000.