My Summer With The ATC-2K ActionCam
Before attempting to having fun this summer, I armed myself with an Oregon Scientific ATC-2K Action Cam Underwater Camera (the original model number was AT 18 but it wasn't cool enough so they renamed it). I wanted to test it out and see what kind of interesting videos I could get out of it. I'm not much of an underwater expert - I can barely swim - but I had other plans to put it through the paces. Heretofore, I wasn't aware that a completely waterproof camera could be purchased for a reasonable (under $150) price, otherwise I would have done this sooner!
Before I start showing you video shot with the unit, a couple of technical notes. First, as with any digital camera or camcorder, the internal memory (32 MB) turned out to be nearly useless for my purposes. I wanted to shoot at the maximum resolution, , but the memory card allowed for only 52 seconds. I quickly ran to Wal-Mart and purchased a 1 GB SD card for $15 which changed it to 30 minutes (see Details*). Since I already have an SD reader on my computer, transferring the videos was also easier than connecting the camera to my computer with the USB cable included.
SD Card Inserts Into Back (Cap Removed)
And the other note: Audio has been purposely removed from most of these movies because it was, well, horrible. It was muted, of course, but that may be standard for underwater cameras. After all it's not easy for the mic to hear sound when it has to be covered by something that's not water-penetrable. But even beyond that, there was a lot of loud, sharp, static-type noise when the camera was jostling around (especially on the bike). You can also hear this on other people's videos (see the bottom of this entry for a link).
My primary purpose, as you can probably imagine, was to leave it outside in a storm. I am continually frustrated by a lack of a way to get a good time-lapse of an entire thunderstorm, or to even video or photos of lightning during thunderstorms when it is raining (even moving inside, rain falls on windows and obscures lightning).
But that desire turned out to be the hardest thing that I tried to do with this camera. Looking at what was in the box, it was designed with the sports fan in mind, having a handlebar and helmet attachment, but no simple tripod mount, something you would expect with any sort of camera or video camera in this day and age.
When I was on my summer vacation at Oak Island, NC, I awoke on the morning of August 3, 2007 and looked out my bedroom window to see this monster storm approaching:
After setting up three other video cameras and snapping some still pics, I realized I had to do something with the AT-18. I tried to set it on the table, then strapped it to the deck railing with bungee cords, but I couldn't get it steady in the direction that I wanted. The sad timelapse below (I used Camtasia Studio 4 to increase the speed) shows my frustration, and by the time I could steady it up, the storm was already starting to dissipate.
In frustration, I set the darn thing up on end for a cloud time lapse overhead, which actually worked out pretty well when I increased the speed of the video (see Details*). Sadly, the storm dissipated before moving overhead, but the clip gives a good feeling of what it looks like when this happens.
This fall, I spent an hour in our local Lowes Hardware in the Pipes isle, a place that I've been to before when trying to solve a puzzle inexpensively (such as mounting an anemometer on a flat car roof). There I obtained parts to build (for less than $3) a fake handlebar I could screw down to a porch railing.
PROBLEM SOLVED (ENLARGE | WITHOUT CAMERA)
My next job is to figure out a similar solution for the car (sans screws). But I digress.
Back at the beach, I set out to use the cam for what it was made for - under water filming. My first job was to set it at the shore's edge and watch the tiny waves roll in...
That was pretty cool! Let's take it in the surf and try some real waves (above were about 2 inches, these were about 2 feet).
Also pretty neat! Now that I've got that out of my system, the video below shows the one true problem that I ran into when using the ATC-2K, and that was blurriness. Above water, it was clear. Under water it was clear (well, as clear as the water is on the NC coast!) But in-between it sometimes suffered from bad blurriness that wouldn't go away until the lens was completely dry or submerged again. It may have been something about the salt or sand in the water, and it may happen to other inexpensive underwater cameras too, I just don't know. Here's what it looked like when I dropped the cam into the ocean (that's my beach house in the middle!)
Next up, an unexpected use I found for the ATC-2K on vacation. On our last night there, winds suddenly increased to sustained around 30 mph, kicking up sand. Since it was too painful to observe, (ever had your legs sandblasted?) I chucked the ATC-2K out on the beach. What ensued was a fascinating view of a miniature sandstorm from ground-perspective. Even the audio was interesting on this one, as each grain of sand that hit the camera made a little "tick." The camera or lens was not damaged by the sand, but to this day I still find grains of sand packed into every crevice!
RATE THIS PHOTO & LEAVE COMMENTS
We took bikes out on the island one day that week, and I really wanted to bring the cam along then, but we had enough to deal with - the fact that my wife and I hadn't been on bikes much in the last 20 years, the rickety rental bikes themselves, my need to take high-quality still photos on the tour, and the fact that the Heat Index was in the 110's. So it didn't happen then, but after we returned home, later this summer, I did connect the ATC-2K up to my bicycle and documented part of the local bike path here in State College, PA (from Enterprise Drive to Blue Course). Here's what it looked like (this video runs about two minutes - NO AUDIO).
Note that the biggest challenge with using the camera this way is keeping the handlebars still. A person has a tendency to move the handlebars back and forth when pumping their legs, and this was something I hadn't anticipated.
Upon writing this blog entry, I found that the ATC-2K has its own website where people have posted videos much cooler than mine, including strapping the camera to a rocket for an aerial view. Way cool.
As many of you know, I have always had a bit of a fetish for experimental webcams. Although I'm always disappointed at not having a way to transmit LIVE as a webcam, I have a few more ideas for the ATC-2K which I'll work out in the future and let you know, such as...
- The Snowstorm Cam
- The Dog Cam
- The Trick-Or-Treater-Cam
- The Fridge/Freezer Cam
Overall, the ATC-2K made summer much more fun and user-generated. Sure, the quality wasn't better than a cheap webcam, but you can't put your average QuickCam underwater. Most of the issues I encountered were easily explained and probably common across inexpensive underwater cameras. If they could add a tripod mount, it would be important for us non-sports geeks who like to watch storms.
*DETAILS TOO IN-DEPTH FOR TEXT ABOVE:
1. To create the cloud timelapse, I took the original AVI video, which was about 15 minutes long, into Camtasia Studio 4, changed the "Clip Speed" to 999%, did a "Replace With Silence" with the audio, exported as a high-quality AVI ("Powerpoint to DVD"), reimported it, increased speed by 999% again, then exported it as a lower quality WMV.)
2. The highest resolution on the ATC-2K is VGA 640x480 at 30 FPS. At the maximum memory card size, 2 GB would have made for 60 minutes, or 13 hours in the worst quality setting, which is QQVGA 160x120 15 FPS.
3. The parts to create the "handlebar" were: One iron pipe floor flange, two short male/male connector pipes, and one female-to-female elbow connector. The second short pipe serves as the "handlebar".
