It looks like Oregon Scientific realized where the weakness of their ATC9K camera is – the mount system. This morning I went to their site to look for a spare battery, and saw that they started selling two additional mounts!
UltraClamp Camera Mounting Kit
and
Fat Gecko Camera Mount with suction cups
Additionally, they’ve added an external battery charger and a standard mount kit which is available separately from the camera.
This is great news. As I wrote before, I believe that the mount options were the Achilles’ Heel of Oregon Scientific’s camera system. What I still would like to see is stronger connection between the Camera Clamp (the “hugger” that holds the cylindrical body of the camera) and Base Mount. They both are made of plastic, and I am just a little nervous about how well they will hold in more extreme conditions of Down Hill riding, or exposure to high airflow of motorcycle riding. If only the Camera Clamp was made of more substantial plastic and had a standard photo tripod screw thread!
What I also like about the setup is that the connection is the standard connection for photo equipment, which means that when you are buying the UltraClamp, it’s compatible not only with ATC9K, but also with other cameras, so you can use a point’n’shoot as well.
Additionally, it would be great if Oregon Scientific came up with sticky mounts like he GoPro’s which you could stick to places like car’s bumper or motorcycle’s swingarm for impressive video angles, leaving the mount there, and attaching camera to it when you want to make a video.
Hmm, when I following the links you provided above for the two mounts, they just go to Oregon Scientific’s home page, probably because the links are not valid anymore. Regardless, while I did find the suction cup mount, I am not finding the “UltraClamp” mount. I would not want to trust the camera to a suction cup, so I’m curious what this “UltraClamp” is. Is it possible the took it off the market?
Yes, looks like they took it down. Strange, but luckily UltraClamp is not Oregon Scientific product, so you can buy it on many web sites. I got one and it’s really good – I was able to mount my camera in many places on my motorcycle. here are few different links to it:
http://www.industrialrev.com/ultraclamp-assembly.html
http://www.amazon.com/PEDCO-P-UCA-Pedco-UltraClamp-Assembly/dp/B000ABB4HC
Also, it looks like they changed the suction mount they had on the site when I wrote the post. At the time, they had something similar to Delkin Dual suction mount, and now they have a single-cup mount. For ATC9K, i’d probably use a single suction, but for anything bigger/heavier, I’d definitely want dual cups.
http://www.amazon.com/Delkin-Devices-DDMOUNT-SUCTION-Knuckle-Suction/dp/B0023ZK2TY/ref=pd_sim_sg_7
Hello I’m French user of Oregon ATC9K and I like this camera. I have 2 negative point, the software like you, and the sound but when I read your blog with your tips for the mic to put a foam on top, I will test this soon. I have a tips for you I use a system mount with “RAM” to mount on my bike, Its a litle ball which screws in yellow support and after I fix an other ball on my bike. Look this website http://www.rammount.com/
have nice day
This is my first video http://youtu.be/iieEPSm5CDE
Sorry, I had a bug, my post did not work.
So I’m a french user of ATC9K and I really like your post and I quite agree with you on these defects. I’ll take your idea to put the foam on the mic I think it can work. If not for the setting I chose the RAM mounting system. This is a simple but effective system, I screwed a ram ball on the support of the camera and oule on my bike that I fixed on the rearview mirror or on the handle screw passenger.
This is the website http://www.rammount.com/
have a nice day