Brief:
The Oregon Scientific Action Camera is intended for outside sports enthusiast such as mountain bikers. It comes with attachments for helmets and handlebars. I was encouraged by Pete Barrent of the UK that had several on-board videos on YouTube. He used the straps to attach it to body tube of his rockets so I decided to give it a try.

Here is a review on the Oregon Scientific ATC-1000 Action Camera for reference.

The ATC-2K camera is capable of 640x480 videos at 30 frames per second at the highest setting. The video is recorded in AVI format. With a 2G SD card installed it can record one hour of video. The dimensions are 4.25"L x 1.75"D x 2.25"H. With two AA batteries it weights 0.5lb. The camera is compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP computers. The camera plugs in with a USB cable and acts like a removable drive. No special software is needed to retrieve the files. However, you will likely use video editing software convert the AVI files to the more compact MPEG files.

Construction:
I decided to use a hose clamp instead of the supplied straps to attach the ATC-2K to my rockets. I worked the hose clamp through the supplied mount. I have attached it to my 4 inch PML AMRAAM and my 7.5 inch Mighty Mo rockets this way. I put masking tape around the body tube to protect damage from the clamp. On the Mighty Mo I also spray painted masking tape black and applied it to the hose clamp to hide it. On the AMRAAM I mounted the camera near the nose cone. On the mighty Mo I mounted it on the booster section just above the fins. On the Mighty Mo the 0.5lb was not going to affect the CG and I felt it was less likely to snag a shock cord there.

Flight:
The first flight was on my PML 4 inch AMRAAM using the hose clamp approach. The flight was very nice on a J350 motor. The shock came when I discovered there was no camera on the rocket. There were numerous fellow fliers who helped search for the camera. This is when you get the sinking feeling you have have lost a $100 camera and $30 SD card. A last ditch search attempt retrieved the camera. It looked OK but would it have the video? Yes it did. I discovered that the camera was ejected from the mount at apogee when the shock cord was pulled tight. The camera endured a 1900 foot free fall and survived. You see the mount held by the hose clamp stayed in place but the camera snaps into the mount. This connection seemed tight but led to the problem. After downloading, I was very pleased with the quality of the video.

The second flight was on my 7.5 inch Mighty Mo rocket using a AMW M1480 motor. I decided to wrap the camera base and the mount adapter with Kevlar® ribbon I had on hand and tie it off. I am sure similar material would work. This was my fix for the ejected camera problem. On this flight the camera stayed in place through the whole flight. Again the video quality was good. I did get a lot of the rocket in the view of the camera with the Mighty Mo.

Summary:
The pros for this camera include good quality for rocket videos for a $130 investment. The one hour record time means you can turn on the camera on the pad and not worry how long it takes the LCO to launch it. And the ATC-2K can attach to existing rockets without modification. I think the most likely application would be HPR rockets 4 inch diameter and up. The con would be the external attachment could tangle with shock cords. However, I have not had this problem occur.

I learned that on-line reviews on the ATC-2K can really be rough on it for the video quality. One review said the SD card would come loose. I almost decided not to try it. Then I can across Pete Barret's On-board rocketry videos and decided to buy one. I have been pleased with the video quality. Surviving a 1900 foot fall says a lot for the camera. I just don't plan to repeat that.