This review was going to be good chance to finally get back to first person vlogs but Wondering if this will be not setting up to its good adverts and really this is old tech too. From Rip Google Glass over a few weeks ago from when it refused to charge to then not actually being able to use the camera once taking it apart to disconnect the battery. So a Replacement was found for a auction price of £39.70 and not without its share of troubles. From being charged twice since the first payment did not go through and well that was the main trouble before this review even started. But enjoy the video below
The Packaging:
This I will admit is clean and simple, black with the immortal logo, a red pair of urls (which no longer works, since 2016 according to the wayback machine) and the sort of White rectangle with red dot logo for a I in this case. But to be fair, this was brand new even when it is on a reduced auction. One Side did show the specs and the bottom did show the Bar-code and also the CE logos too.
The front of the box
The Top of the box
The Right side of the box
The Left side of the box
The bottom of the Box
Then it was time to look in and it was really nicely packed, sure it is very environment unfriendly but this was a older product of over 5 years ago. but it did come with
Glasses Pouch which is a zip
5V 1A UK Plug
5v 0.5A Car Charger
Mini USB Cable
extra pair of ear bits
Case with unbranded class 4 Micro SD Card 8GB (Please do not use for this, Class 4 is shocking)
The Glasses itself
Clear Lenses
The bits in the box
The user Guide
some ear bits
The Mini USb Cable
The side view of the plug
The plug with the details
The Car charger
the 8GB class 4 Micro SD Card + Adapter
The Glasses themselves
As we look to the Glasses Case we finally can unseal the cellofane and well its a nice rubber and waterproof design, with the frames quite bulky but not nerdy and the button is easy to find and not too hard to press if using the right hand. Also some clear frames are included too. The only thing I will say is the connectors have that annoying rubber latch which my fingers cannot easily access. But that is for the waterproofing I can understand, actually on that note, these are splash proof, do not swim with them since they will not support it.
The Front of the Case
The Back of the Case
Opening the case up
Looking at the front of the glasses
The button and the immortal logo
The Same on the other side except it is a non working button
The bottom of the glasses
The Mini USB Connector
The Micro SD Card Slot
The back of the glasses
Which then it means that is mostly how it goes, but it has a nice twist that you can unclip the lenses which makes it easier for say darker places or where sunglasses are banned. And they are firmly in place so they do not become loose too, once the click is pushed in anyway.
The frame with the gap at the top right
The Frame with the gap at the top left
The front of the glasses with the clear lens on
So then, it was time to set them up.
Charging and Wearing:
First the charging is easy once the cap is off for the Mini USB and the cable i had spare was used, which charged nicely and instead of the included Class 4 8GB Card, I used a Sandisk 32GB Card since Class 10 is much more useful Then it was time to kill some time then record, at the time of recording the dog and cat were having a bit of banter and she was really getting on my nerves and bit me halfway through the filming (well after filming and then waiting for it to charge) But, well the way it works is.
Put them on
Hold the button for 5 seconds (2 seconds apparently didn't work for me)
Record for a bit the green light is solid and blue light is flashing
Hold the button for 5 seconds to stop recording. The LEDs will turn off.
Wearing it was amazing and made me look cool.
The pose with the UV Lens
The Pose with the clear lens, reminds me of the googles in Science and DT years ago, (12 now)
The selfie outside when walking Rosie
Another one for good measure
But It was then time to record and well.....
Recording
It only recorded for 10 seconds, I panic, since this means it was a waste of money like the Snapchat Spectacles would be, since this has the benefit of using USB for transfer, which leads to the next stage. Letting it charge overnight was the best fix to get the recording to be longer.
There is no stabilization on these which back in the release of this, is understandable, since well it was only 3 years or so which stabilization is used, But even when recording and walking, it feels very judder-y , even Glass had more stable recording. Also the colour looks quite faded too, the sound is better outside then indoors from what I've seen so far.
It does look okay here,
There is lots of higher contrast here which is not ideal
The path looks faded
The river does look faded
Now it does remind me of the action camera as well, the similar colour fading here But it means a bit of editing work for using it in future vlogs, We'll have to hope it goes well for later. Thank something for the NO FISH EYE, that would have made using this worse by far.
Transferring to PC and Mac:
Lets be clear, this actually is easier than I thought and one of the issues with the cheaper ones is the recording for the Camera Glasses is in a AVI container with a MJPEG Codec, which the quality of that is shocking, With luck, the codec used here is H.264 which is much easier to record and import for apps like Vegas and FCP X, which well, it did import the footage.
The laptop and the glasses connected
Importing the footage which Mac OS sees it as storage device, not android (which means compatible for 10.14 or higher)
When it comes to windows, it works fine too, since This PC picks it up easily, and we can also inspect the folder layout which is
Root > DCIM > 100xxx > Files
Now this means that only videos are supported and no photos can be taken. But enjoy to see the time stamps and the video files details below:
The Layout of the SD Card
The details of the video file
If .MOV does not work, you an rename the file to have the .MP4 container instead and it does work as shown here
One thing that is annoying is that the timestamp (Not on video, but the date in the file details) mentions 2011 and sadly so far there is no fix so far which that link did make no change, since the text file was removed after recording. This means it will be a bit of hassle to try to make the timestamp on there when editing. But ah well. The good thing is that the Time stamp is not shown on the recording else it null and voids using this.
Conclusion:
Well this actually is something more to it for the casual use, it works like glass, but the quality is no way as good as glass at all, sure the sound is less tinny but it also feels less in that way as well. But it does make it easier for using and more comfortable to wear and looks cool compares to the dad jokes at me looking like an cyborg with glass on. And that makes a bit of difference.
With all of that said
omracer's Rating: 5/10
The Good Points:
Reasonable Value for money (good value if it was not double charged and the paypal hassle)
Good Build Quality
Records in H.264 and not MJPEG (Container is .MOV but can be renamed to .MP4)
Supports Micro SD Card, even a class 10 V1 and V3 32GB,
Reasonable bitrate of 6 mbps - 7 mbps
Easy to wear
Interchangeable lenses
The Bad Points:
Camera has no stabilization in the sensor/lens
Colour on footage looks faded/washed out
Button needs to be pressed for 5 seconds to start and stop, not 2 seconds as in the guide
Does not take any pictures, just a video file
Sound can be buzzing when quiet
And that's a wrap for this review , now there are some more reviews I;m getting sorted out since due to family things, I do get more time to myself, even with something special to save up for (which these are to be used in future), I've had some more plans of reviews in the coming weeks and months, 2 of them are Kickstarters. Which time will tell when I get to film and review those.
