Opal Tadpole: Almost There, Just a Tad Off

For my day job, I am on calls most of the day. most days I'm on video calls for 4-6 hours. One of my pet peeves about my old Macbook Pro is the webcam isn't great. This is further complicated when using the computer with the lid closed. I watched Opal launch the C1, and then more recently I saw they released the Tadpole.

The C1 was Opal's flagship camera that launched during the pandemic, and was tapped as a Mac-only webcam. The Tadpole was supposed to be the cross platform portable high quality camera that could be sold to the masses and used for all.

I purchased it and got it in the mail a few days later. Once I received it, I immediately recognized a problem with it. The damn cord was too short! While I understand it is portable, the cord really could have been 6 inches longer and probably worked just fine. If i put a USB extension cable on it, the other killer feature is tucked behind my monitor.. the touch to mute function!

For someone with an M1 Macbook Air or Pro and if you work exclusively on the go, it might be a good upgrade, but for people who are full WFH, or are at a desk often I would go with something with a longer cord attached to it like the Logitech MX Brio Ultra – that gets bonus points for being fully Windows and Mac compatible.