SunnyCam HD Video Camera Sunglasses Review

From the moment I stepped into the Gadget Show Live 2015, something caught my eye and refused to let it go. I spent the rest of my day wandering the halls with just this single object on my mind. This item was the SunnyCam HD Video Camera Sunglasses.

This is exactly what it sounds like; a pair of sunglasses with a HD camera on them. By that, I don’t mean a webcam taped to a pair of glasses, I mean the camera is part of the glasses. The glasses aren’t bulky, or over-sized, or even heavy. Everything about them is small and compacted into a neat little package that you can carry around easily.

At first, I was a bit intimidated; its small size and lack of directions had me worried that I would find them too complex to use, but the instructions were actually surprising clear, giving you a basic walkthrough of how to turn them on and cycle through the different modes (video, audio and photo), and after about two minutes of looking at the manual, I was already using them with no problems at all. Not only that, but it was actually pretty simple to understand how to use them; they didn’t over-complicate anything.

When it comes to the camera, it’s remarkable. For its small size, the quality of the recording is astounding. Even when in rapid movement, it picks up video very well and it rarely becomes blurred or distorted, even in direct sunlight. It’s not so effective in areas with low light (understandably), but not to the point where it doesn’t pick anything up.

However, whilst the video was great, the audio wasn’t as good. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a bit grainy and strange to listen to. It doesn’t ruin the device however; it’s still easy to hear what is being said and done, so this is just more of ‘something they could improve’ than something that was bad.

One final point, although this is more of a personal issue more than anything else, is that I tend to naturally tilt my head downwards and tilt my eyes up towards whatever I am looking at. Whilst this isn’t exactly a big problem, there was a few times where, looking over the footage, it seemed as if I was glaring furiously at my friend’s chest as she spoke, when in reality I was looking at her face, just my head was tilted downwards at a suggestive angle that could have gotten me slapped in the face if I had a significant other that happened to find the footage. The ability to perhaps pan/rotate the camera would be good, but is understandably difficult, with the glasses’ small size.

Overall, the SunnyCam Glasses are an excellent tool that can be used to record just about anything (I used them to record a game of Cards Against Humanity). Going to a party? Take the glasses. Going to the park? Take the glasses. Committing a murder? On second thoughts, don’t bring the glasses if you’re planning on that. Unless you like watching HD first-person murder. In which case, these are definitely the glasses for you. If murder isn’t your thing, you should just get these anyway, because they’re completely awesome.