In the late 1990's, Warren Ellis wrote a comic book called Transmetropolitan. It was about a gonzo journalist who covered politics in a cyberpunk future. One of his signatures was a pair of unique glasses that worked as a camera, recording video and taking photos whenever he wanted. Pivothead's Video Recording Eyewear does the same thing?all without the politics, cyberpunk, or drug-fueled diatribes found in the comic book. Despite those omissions, this $349 (direct) pair of sunglasses is one of the most useful head-mounted high-definition video cameras we've tested. While it's not cheap and video quality isn't top-notch, Pivothead?offers one of the best ways to record exactly what you're looking at.
Design
Pivothead glasses come in four different frame styles (Aurora, Durango, Moab, and Recon), each with multiple lens choices. The Durango lenses are full-rim glasses, the Moab and Recon are half-rim glasses, and the Aurora is a single-lens goggle-style pair. Each model has at least one dark-lensed version, the Moab and Recon have clear-lens versions, and green, amber, blue, and violet lenses are scattered across the four lines.
I tested the Durango model with smoke lenses, which together look like an ordinary pair of sporty sunglasses. You can also get reflective, clear, or color-tinted lenses, depending on the style. All models are $349. The plastic is thick, but feels a little cheap, and doesn't compare in style or build quality to sunglasses from the likes of Oakley or Ray-Ban.?The glasses come with a hard case and a micro-USB-to-USB cable for charging and transferring files. Each pair comes with 8GB of onboard storage, letting you record approximately 80 minutes of video. There's no card slot for expansion.
Besides the small lens on the bridge of the glasses, the camera parts are tough to notice if you don't know they're there. The Power button is a small nub behind the bulk of the left temple, on the underside of the arm. A small rocker button on the top of the temple controls recording; pressing the rocker forward turns video on and off, while pressing the rocker backward takes still photos, which can be shot while recording video. The temples are more than a centimeter thick, but they flow into the design of the glasses, and the arms thin out to fit more comfortably around the head, with rubber padding on the inner sides.?
The only other hints that the glasses are actually a video camera are the micro-USB connection behind a small rubber door near the power button and a series of three small LEDs located on the inside of the left temple, just out of your peripheral vision. The LEDs indicate if the glasses are on, recording, charging, or connected to a computer. Pivothead decided to keep the LEDs out of the line of peripheral vision so they wouldn't get in the way of users performing high-risk activities like extreme sports. Unfortunately, the LEDs are very difficult to see in bright light. An audible tone to let you know the glasses are recording would help here.
Since the Pivothead glasses have only three buttons, you need to use either a computer or a smartphone to change recording settings. By plugging the glasses into your computer through a USB cable, you can choose the video resolution and frame rate, as well as photo resolution, burst mode, and even the focus settings. Free software is available for PCs and Macs to adjust the settings and simplify downloading files. You can also control the glasses and stream video online through an Android or iOS device with Pivothead's optional $99 Air Pivothead, a Wi-Fi-equipped SD card reader.
Performance
Pivothead eyewear offers a nearly perfect first-person perspective, thanks to the camera's position right between your eyes; it records exactly what you're looking at, from the angle you're facing. This design is a big improvement over side-mounted helmet cameras like the Contour+ ($499, 3 stars) or the Bluetooth earpiece-style Looxcie 2 ($149.99, 3 stars), both of which require you to check that the camera is pointing in the correct direction. If you're wearing the Pivothead glasses, you're recording what you're seeing, and that's all there is to it. The GoPro HD Hero2 ($299.99, 4 stars) remains the best choice if you need waterproof, shock-resistant video; the other cameras aren't as resilient.?
Because the sensor and lens are so small, video quality from the Pivothead is closer to a smartphone's camera capabilities than a dedicated camera or camcorder. It can record video at 1080p30, 720p60, or 720p30, and can capture up to 8-megapixel still photos while recording by tapping back on the rocker switch. But even at the highest quality setting, recorded video isn't particularly sharp. The glasses performed admirably indoors in good light, but slightly overexposed the video (above) on a sunny day at Coney Island. Still photos looked surprisingly crisp in my tests, but you'll get better performance from a compact camera with a decent lens and sensor. Audio quality isn't quite as good, and the microphone picked up the sounds of my allergies almost as well as it captured my surroundings.
The glasses offer an impressive 75-degree field of vision with little to no distortion, a boon when similar action cameras go for wide lenses at the expense of having a fisheye effect. Still, this is an action camera, and its ability to shoot 720p video at 60 frames per second makes it useful for sports or other activities that suit themselves to a first-person perspective.
Pivothead's Video Recording Eyewear is one of the most useful takes on the head-mounted camera idea I've seen. By simply moving the camera to the middle of a pair of glasses, it offers a better first-person view than any other action camera we've tested. The glasses I tested are unremarkable looking, and they feel a bit cheap for the price, but if you want to record video as you're seeing it, it's one of the best options available.
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