The Oakley and Meta collaboration produced HSTN Limited Edition smart glasses, offering improved 3K video quality for $499. Designed for vertical video recording, the glasses suit social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok with point-and-shoot functionality. However, they are limited by a vertical-only format, which complicates traditional editing workflows. Recording at high resolutions reveals weaknesses, including heavy compression that reduces audio-visual quality. The compression results in a digital quality with textures appearing crunchy and artifacts noticeable, undermining their effectiveness in a studio environment.
The vertical-only shooting style is ideal for social: Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. They're a one-button, point-and-shoot solution creators will crave.
The vertical-only video format is the single biggest obstacle, and I was aware of that limitation going in. The glasses offer up to 3K resolution at 2203x2938, at 30 fps.
Switching to horizontal requires cropping and scaling inside Adobe Premiere, which drops the resolution down to roughly 1700 x 956. In a 4K timeline, the footage appears soft and noticeably less detailed.
The HSTN video files appear noticeably processed to keep file sizes small for quick transfers from the glasses to the connected smartphone, and the results have a particularly 'digital' quality.
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