Hands on: Oregon Scientific ATC3K Extreme hands-free camera

By Rory Reid on 02 December 2008, 4:32pm

Like sliding down snowy slopes while standing on thin planks of wood? How about throwing yourself out of planes, or shouting "Gnarly!" at the top of your voice? If so, you might want to check out the Oregon Scientific ATC3K Extreme hands-free camcorder -- the successor to the ATC2K.

It's probably the toughest camera we've ever tested. Last weekend we took it to the Italian Alps for a hardcore snowboarding expedition, where over the course of our five-day adventure, it really proved its sturdiness. It's waterproof to 5m so we never had to worry about it getting wet, plus it's resistant to snow, dust and shocks, which is just as well seeing as we spent more time wiped out than slaloming down the mountains.

The ATC3K Extreme has a 48-degree, 640x480-pixel lens, and can store up to 4 hours of footage at 30fps on to an optional 4GB SD card. It's not all peaches and cream, though. Picture quality is relatively poor, it's extremely fiddly to attach to a helmet (or anything else for that matter), and the tiny non-backlit LCD screen is nigh-on impossible to see, let alone use.

Have a look at this video of CBS Interactive's own Kate Macefield and Rory Reid snowboarding (badly) down a mountain, and this footage of us running excitedly through the CBS Interactive offices. When you're done watching and have recovered from motion sickness, hop over to iwantoneofthose.com to buy one for £100.