Two years ago, Opel launched a camera through a tweet. (They were called tweets even then.) It was a global pandemic, a work-from-home revolution, and a really brutal time to start a hardware company — and Opal suddenly had thousands of people signed up, says the Reddit co-founder. and the webcam of Opel investor Alexis Ohanian, Promise was “mind-blowing”. Opel had four employees at the time, CEO Veeraj Chugh told me, and all the company’s time and attention was devoted only to shipping the cameras as quickly as possible.
The process of developing its second camera, called Tadpole and launching today, has apparently been a lot easier. Opel now has a real hardware team and supply chain; It was able to go back to suppliers and develop custom parts and equipment instead of buying whatever parts it could find in China. (It may actually also Go In China, unlike the heat of the pandemic.)
As a result, the $175 Tadpole isn’t really a successor to Opel’s first camera, the C1. This is something different: a webcam that’s specifically designed to be clipped to your laptop, not glued to the top of a desktop monitor. But it’s also everything the C1 isn’t: small, compatible with everything (including Windows devices, eventually!), and really, really easy to use. I recently spent some time using Tadpole during a cross-country trip and I was really impressed.
The device itself is a small square, 1.25 inches in both dimensions and about as thick as a pack of gum. Opel says it weighs about the same as an AA battery – I don’t have a scale, but holding both in my hands, that’s about right. And the thing is, it’s really small. I get real iPod shuffle vibes from this thing, and I mean that in a good way. It comes in black and white and has a clip on the back that attaches to your laptop’s lid and an integrated USB-C cable that plugs into your computer.
The cable, clip, and camera are all included and easy to install. Image: Opel
Opel created this device because the company kept hearing from users who wanted to take their cameras on the road, Chugh says. As people started going back to the office and on business trips, they still wanted upgrades on their webcams. One of the most popular requests Opel received was a travel case for the C1. “And then we started thinking, OK, why do people want a case?” Chugh says. They found that people still want to look good, but they need to be able to do so from an airport lounge, co-working space or conference room.
The camera itself is a half-inch, 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor (which you might have seen in the OnePlus 7 Pro or some Samsung A-series phones from around 2019 and 2020), with an f/1.8 lens and the ability to capture up to 4K video. It’s an even bigger, better sensor than the C1, and it’s a huge improvement over your average built-in laptop webcam and roughly on par with the sensors you’ll get from more expensive devices like the Insta360 Link.
The quality of Tadpole has improved so much that people have asked me to comment on how sharp I look on calls and that it is especially useful in poor light. You know that setup where you’re sitting right in front of a window, and your webcam basically turns you into a shadow in front of a raised background? Stefan Sohlstrom, Opal’s other co-founder, says this is the hardest setup for any webcam to solve, and while the Tadpole doesn’t fix it completely, it’s much better than my MacBook Air’s built-in webcam.
The Tadpole also has a built-in mic that Opel calls the “Wizmic”. The idea behind VisiMic was that Tadpole’s microphones should only be able to hear what the mic can see, which is a pretty good way to guess “what meeting I’m attending” and “who’s at the next table.” It’s a clever idea, but it didn’t really hold up to my testing. The Tadpole’s mic is good, and it does try to block out some out-of-frame sound. , but it’s no better to my ears than any other noise cancellation system. You can mute the mic by touching a capacitive pad on the USB plug, which is neat, but it’s the same with any chat apps. Not integrated – it’s just a hardware switch – so you run the risk of occasional “where am I on mute” confusion.
This thing gives serious iPod shuffle vibes. Image: Opel
Overall, I like Tadpole a lot and I can see it being useful for people who travel a lot and need an easy way to keep track of their meetings. And that last bit is the real story here: Tadpole is remarkably easy to use, which couldn’t be more different than C1.
I’ve had the C1 since the beginning of its life as an Opal, and while it really brings a big image quality upgrade compared to most webcams, it’s been a royal pain to use. Opal’s app was glitchy for a long time, my computer often wouldn’t recognize the camera, and many video services didn’t know what to do with Opal. I stopped using the C1 in favor of a series of bad looking webcams because I was tired of troubleshooting.
The tadpole, on the other hand, works as it should. You plug the thing in, and there’s no step two. If you want some manual image control, you can still download Opel’s Composer app, but it’s not necessary to do so. The Tadpole looks like any other webcam in any app I’ve tried, and it’s up and running in a second after you plug it in. It works on Windows and Mac, and so far the only problem for me is that the clip only opens Now! Wide enough to go over the lid of my Surface Laptop Studio.
Tadpole is an old thing – it doesn’t rely on software and custom apps; this is a much better camera
It’s actually a throwback to webcams in a way that doesn’t rely on a ton of software and custom apps, but instead gives you better hardware that you can customize into your video chat app or whatever you want . Tadpole does no auto-framing (since the Opal figures you probably sit in front of your laptop, oddly not off to the side) and doesn’t offer background blur or silly filters. There are apps for this, including Opel’s own. The tadpole’s job is just to be a good camera. This seems to be the right approach: C1 wasn’t worth the trouble after a while, but so far, Tadpole is no trouble.
A $175 webcam is still a big ask, especially for a device you can’t natively use on a desktop monitor. (There’s no tripod attachment, no clip, no nothing — this thing is for laptop lids and laptop lids only.) And besides, what we thought a few years ago might be the WFH gadget revolution is pretty much it. has faded as people have gone back to work and returned to their old routines. Opal claims that there is at least one group of people who have become accustomed to looking and feeling better and don’t want to give it up now that they are in a hotel room instead of their bedroom. And it looks like the company has finally made a camera that’s good and handy enough that it’ll be worth the (little bit) of extra space in your carry-on.