Opal Tadpole – Tiny-Sized Webcam for Work & Travel!

[Music] Hey friends - Andrew here, hope you're  well! Most webcams are relatively big and chunky,   it's not something you can put in your pocket but  this is possibly the tiniest portable webcam that   has pretty great video and audio for its tiny  size I've heard a lot of great things about   this webcam so a big thank you to opal for  sending one out and sponsoring today's video   but as always opinions are my own so the webcam  is appropriately named the opal Tad pole it's a   followup to the opal C1 you might have seen me use  that webcam in previous videos uh that webcam is   genuinely the best webcam I've personally used  yet in fact it's still my main webcam I use to   take video calls in the office but the Tad ball  here this is the more affordable more portable   version of the C1 and it's finally compatible with  both Macs and Windows laptops so let's see if this   webc cam is worth adding into an everyday work  bag and travel setup so firstly when I say this   thing is small it's properly small weighing less  than 50 g and is about 1.5 in in length to give   you some real life perspective here it is next to  my iPhone 15 Pro and it's still slightly smaller   than the camera Notch next to the desktop webcams  and the previous opal C1 itself you can see how   portable the Tapo is in comparison also the USB  cable con veniently doubles as a wrist strap and   the carry case is a great way to carry the webcam  to the next remote meeting the slim form factor   and unique design of the tadpole means it's made  specifically for laptops only it literally Clips   onto a laptop shell as you can see here rather  than sit on top of it like most webcams do so   there's no chance of it falling off so because  it's uniquely designed for laptops the whole   point of the opal tadpole is to replace a laptop's  in built webcam not a desktop webcam and so let's   compare the image quality to a Macbook and Windows  laptop in comparison to the MacBook M2 A's 1080p   webcam there is a noticeable Improvement in  Vibrance and clarity as you can probably see   here too and then on my Windows laptop which has  a 720p webcam it's a night and day difference in   resolution and detail with less artifacts the  adjustable Boke on the Tad pole is also a big   factor to that nice professional looking touch on  video calls I have mind set to about an aperture   of 3.2 and I find it gives a nice depth of field  look without being overthe toop or unnatural it   is a plug andplay webcam for both Macs and windows  so I found that it does a great job in producing   realistic colors right out of the box but it is  worth mentioning that the optional companion app   the opal composer is a great way to tweak image  settings to get the most out of the tadpole and   even stacking it up against its bigger and older  brother the C1 image quality is honestly quite   similar so that's really impressive considering  the price and size difference the tests aren't   surprising though I think it's a small webcam  with a big sensor there aren't many laptops on   the market that can natively compete with the Sony  f1.8 lens and 48 megapixel sensor on the Tad pole   although it's bended to 1080p so there's no 4K  capability here you could say Apple's continuity   cam is the same solution which does produce an  insanely good image while being portable but the   tadpole is far more convenient portable and it's  a dedicated webcam so my iPhone is still there   and it's available to use instead of being locked  up as a webcam so what you're hearing right now   is the onboard microphone and it's made to work  for busy environments like outside in cafes or in   co-working spaces it works pretty well because  it has a single Direct directional microphone   that points directly at you so it does a pretty  good job picking up just my voice so I ran a test   and I turned on some music on my Sona speaker  that was sitting right next to the laptop and   it didn't pick up the music at all I tried  to record a voice clip behind the webcam and   it also didn't pick up my voice so it does work  really well also the genius tap to mute feature   turns the USP cable itself into a taable instant  mute button here it's convenient when your partner   accidentally walks in on you during a meeting  and by using the inbuilt mute button here you   can still appear unmuted to others on the zoom  core so that's a small perk so after weeks of   using the Tad pole in the studio and also out in  the real world this is a webcam I'll be keeping   and using as part of my travel and remote work  setup the only two gripes that I have found   was the fact that it gets quite hot to the touch  when using the webcam for long stretches of time   and 4K capability would would be a nice to have  considering how big the sensor is on the tadpole   but otherwise everything is optimized for the  best portable webcam experience it's tiny it's   light the noise cancellation on the microphone  is as good as it gets and most importantly it's   a genuine step up from just about all inbuilt  laptop webcams it builds upon the opal C1 being   half the price at $175 it's also significantly  smaller yet its image quality is comparable to   the C1 so overall if you're someone that not  only takes a lot of video calls but remote   work is a big part of your work week this is  a portable webcam that is literally made for   you and opal's extending a pretty generous 25%  discount code for our audience using the code   AZ through the link below if you made it to the  end of this video comment the code word tiny and   I'll give it a like and as always thanks for  watching and I'll see you in the next video a

Channel: Andrew Ethan Zeng

Views: 21,828

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Id: ZZb8i-OfctQ

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024