TactaCam Bone Collector Action Camera

[HollowPoint]

I broke down and bought the cheapest model they make. I found what looked to be an outstanding deal from a seller on the fleabay website so I went for it. It was listed as Brand New and it looked brand-spanking new when it arrived.

When I tried to remove the battery to take a closer look at it I was unable to get it to come out. I didn't think much of it cause I would still be able to charge the battery and play back any video recording without having to take the battery out. The instructions called for a full charging of the battery before power it on for the first time so I plugged into the wall socket with the provided cables and waited the full amount of time stated in the instructions.

After that full amount of time had elapsed the battery had still not fully charged which was indicated by the red light not having turned green on the power button. I unplugged it and proceeded to insert my Micro-SD card into the appropriate slot but it wouldn't go in. It took deliberate force to finally get my SD-Card to go into it's slot. The instructions stated that the Micro-SD card had to be in place in order for the camera to power on. Once in place the camera did power on and it did (I found out later) record the two short segments of test video I attempted but I wasn't sure at that time.

I got tired of messing with it so I let it sit over night to give myself a chance to calm down. The next day when I had a bit more free time I removed the rear cap and with my magnifying glass I noticed that I could not extract my SD-Card from it's slot. The reason for this is because the floor of the SD-Card slot had been distorted upward and it was pinching the SD-Card in place. With the magnifying glass I noticed too a very faint hair line crack on the rear wall of the battery casing itself. It was so fine that it was hard to tell if it was a just the seam in the plastic or a genuine crack.

At that point I was sending off emails to the seller that I bought this item from to describe the problems I was seeing. I let it set for another day and when I got the time to examine it again I took the back screw-on cap off and noticed that the hair-line crack I'd noticed the day before had now become a full blown crack. When I tried to lightly push it back into place the light force I used only served to make that cracked back wall of the battery casing just break completely off.

I could see now that the problem was that the battery had swollen up. That's why I couldn't remove it when it first arrived. My attempt at fully charging it as the instructions had directed only served to exacerbate the problem. I found out later after successfully removing the battery without damaging the camera unit itself that the battery had swollen upward to pinch the SD-Card slot and rearward enough to crack the rear wall of the battery casing. I did find also when I connected the unit to my laptop that the camera itself seemed to be working fine. I was able to play back those two short test vids I mentioned earlier.

One of the things I habitually do whenever I purchase something online that's supposed to have a warranty is to go online and register the product on their specific website. I did this with this TactaCam camera the same day it arrived in the mail before I even sat down to take a closer look at it. This time around it turned out to be a real good thing for me.

The seller that sold me the unit agreed to compensate me for the price of a brand new replacement battery and the folks over at the TactaCam support department; after proving to them that this was not purchased as a used item, agreed to send me out a replacement battery as well so, now I have two new replacement batteries on the way. It was not without some effort though. To prove all my claims I had to take several close up images of the battery in question. Funny thing is that when I first sent them the photos they stated, "We've never seen this problem before." I must be the only one who's ever seen a swollen battery. I've had my cell phone's battery swell up and die before. I've also had one in my cordless drill batteries die and my Canon SLR battery too; all from swollen battery syndrome.

While all this was going on I tried not to loose heart. I spent some time drawing up models of a 3D printed combination head-mount and tripod mount fixture for this same TactaCam Action camera. I look forward to taking out on shooting range sessions and fishing trips. I also purchased the fixture for this camera that will allow me to record video through my rifle scope. That particular fixture should arrive next week.

Here are a few pics of all the stuff I've tried to describe above. I'm sure that TactaCam problems like the ones I've just experience are rare but just in case any of you have this same problem now you know that you're not the only one.

Just a quick edit to let everyone know that no sooner had I posted this thread that the mail man delivered my "Thru-The-Scope" attachment for my newly purchased TactaCam Solo camera. At the same time I found my newly ordered battery sitting in it's own packaging right next to the scope fixture box. I then made sure that the wifi connection from my cell phone to the camera was working (which it was) so now I have this fully functional TactaCam action camera attached to my Umarex Gauntlet PCP air rifle and I'm just waiting for an opportunity to test it out on some hapless pigeon. I hope to make that hapless pigeon an internet star.

This was the new battery that the Ebay seller compensated me for. The battery being sent by the warranty department at the TactaCam support center should be here next week some time. It's all starting to come together. It should quit raining by Thursday night here in AZ so I might have a chance to actually make it to the river for some more fishing with my 3D printed Micro-Plopper fishing lures. Wish me luck.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

Just an update on this TactaCam camera. After using it for a week or so the color hue on all short videos I was taking with it came out with a pinkish/redish hue to them.

Not counting the battery problems I originally dealt with, the camera itself seemed to be working fine for a short while. I sent off a sample video to the manufacture's support team and they advised me to send the camera back to them. I dropped it in the mail on Saturday so now I wait. I'm electronically retarded so it's difficult for me to figure out what, if anything they can do other than send me out a new camera. I'll just have to wait and see. I do know a few things about photography since I did quite a bit of photography during my college days. I tried everything I knew to do to get the colors to display correctly but nothing helped. I'll be back to close out this thread after the folks over at TactaCam have either fixed my camera or sent out a new one.

In the mean time I picked up another cheapy camera to tide me over till I get this Tactacam thing ironed out. The camera I bought in the interim is a small rectangular Action Camera. It seems to be working well right now but being that it's a cheapy model it doesn't have the "Image Stabilization" feature of more expensive action cameras.

I didn't want to spend any more money on a 2 or 3 Axis gimbal to stabilize my videos so I drew up a quick model of a 2-Axis gimbal that I could print out on my 3D printer. It turned out well but the articulation is not super smooth. It smooth enough to give me better videos than if I were just using the camera alone on a chest-mounted camera holder.

Here is a link of the short vid I made for my Instagram account of the articulation. My friend offered me some tiny wheel bearings for RC cars so in the near future I'll be tweaking my CAD models to print out this same 2-Axis Gimbal so that I can utilize the smoother moving bearings instead of the ABS plastic pivoting axels I've printed up.

Here is the link to the photos I uploaded there. It also has the short vid at the end that shows what I mean about the articulation in the two different Axis.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6CTemLhozk/

HollowPoint

[Markopolo]

wow.. bummer!

[HollowPoint]

wow.. bummer!

Yea; I purchased my TactaCam camera after reading and viewing all the positive reviews they had going for them. What are the odds of being one of the very few to put their money down and get the lemon of the bunch?

I also bought the FTS scope attachment which turned out to have problems as well. On that FTS unit I did manage to get it to work for me after doing a few mods to it. I didn't want to have to buy new rifle scopes just to get this fixture to work so I notched out the housing to get it to slide up farther onto the back end of my scopes. That seemed to have solved most of the issues I was having with the FTS.

It could be that if I happen to get a new replacement camera in the mail it may also mean that the issues I'd had with the FTS fixture were caused by a bad camera as well. I'll just have to wait and see.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

They sent me a new camera. At least they said it was new. It was sent in a Small Flat Rate postage box with no padding to protect it from being banged around inside that box during shipping. It appeared to have originally been slipped into a small bubble wrap bag within the Flat-Rate box but when I opened the box the bubble wrap sleeve or bag was loose laying inside the box so I guess the cylindrical camera just slipped out of the bubble wrap during shipping.

I had an appointment that kept me from giving this replacement camera a test longer than 30 seconds. The playback looked like it was displaying far better and more natural colors than the pinkish/redish hue that was blatantly present in the camera I sent back to Tactacam for repair or replacement. In all fairness the conditions for testing this replacement were far from ideal. It was a dark overcast day today when I found the camera in my mail box due to incoming rain clouds.

It will be raining all the way up to this weekend so I won't be able to test it under sunny conditions till the weekend some time. If that short 30 second video recording I made was any indication there's a good chance that this replacement will perform like a new Tactacam camera was intended to perform. I really hope it does so I can test it with the FTS fixture that attaches to my scopes for through-the-scope video recording.

I'll be back to close out this review after I've had a chance to test this replacement camera under more ideal conditions. The actual service I've gotten from Tactacam has been very good so far. The products themselves, not so much.

HollowPoint