ATCK WATERPROOF ACTION CAMERA ATC2K WATERPRF ACTION CAMERA

I am a police officer and I use this camera when interviewing people. I was initially disappointed with the sound quality, but found the video and capacity with the 2gig card excellent. The problem with the sound is the waterproofing. If you are not going to be using it in water or wet environments all you have to do is remove the mic cover and there is a black square rubber cover over the mic. It is 1mm or thicker and causes the sound distortion and lack of range. Remove it an re-install the cover and you get as good a sound as any other video camera. This camera is well made and a good value at the price. If it had an external mic jack it would rate five stars.

A simple video to show camera and accessories next to bicycle.

I bought this after being involved in an auto accident and suffering an insurance rate increase because I couldn't prove what happened. Less than three months later I was hit by another driver who ran a red light. She and her passenger claimed she had a green light. I had this mounted on the dashboard and recording as I was hit and was able to prove she was lying. Without it I would have been blamed for the accident. It paid for itself already.

The camera provides reasonable quality video but very poor audio. It does not operate well in low light conditions (say 30 minutes after sunset). It's very easy to use and has the ability to change resolution, frame rate, date and time, and also to delete files using the built in display and buttons. At 640x480 30fps a 2Gb card (4Gb not supported) can hold about one hour of video. At 15fps it can record about 90 minutes. It only records videos up to 45 minutes, then seamlessly starts another file. It eats batteries so I bought two NiMh rechargables from Radio Shack and recharge them every other day. You probably don't want to use regular alkali batteries with this camera.

The construction is good with waterproof buttons and a waterproof end cap covering the USB and video ports, battery compartment and memory card slot. It has a good selection of mounts including a handlebar mount, helmet mount, and a big rubber strap that will attach it to just about anything. I used stick-back velcro to attach it to my truck's dashboard and it's steady over smooth roads, jerky over the rough stuff.

Recording is as easy as turning it on (press and hold the left button for two seconds) and hitting the record (middle) button. Stop recording by pressing the middle button again and turn it off by pressing and holding the left button. The right button is used to cycle through modes.

Downloading video files to your computer is done with the USB (about 45 minutes to download 2Gb) or by putting the memory card directly into the front of the computer which is much faster if you have that option.

As I mentioned, the only issue is the extremely poor audio capture. If you're most interested in video then this is an excellent choice for you.

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I've owned two of these cameras for about 6 months now and I've noticed some serious problems...

1. Mounting clip snapped on one camera. It still mounts but when the other clip breaks the camera will be unmountable.

2. Slow response to button presses. For some reason it now takes 10-20 seconds between hitting the button to stop recording and actually stopping. Didn't do this when I first bought it.

3. Corrupts the memory card. Deleting files does not always release the memory so you eventually run out. I find I have to reformat the memory card every few days to recover the lost memory. The camera cannot do this so you need a computer with a memory card slot. If you don't have such a computer you are screwed.

I was thinking of upgrading to Oregon Scientific's newest model but decided not to given the quality problems I'm having with this one.

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