Opal C1 Review - Does This 4K Webcam Live Up to Expectations?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- The Opal C1 is a 4K webcam that started shipping out to customers in late 2021. The company has many big backers, but does its flagship web camera live up to expectations?
I've spent a few months with the Opal C1 and reveal its strengths and weaknesses in this review.
Find out more about the webcam at opalcamera.com/opal-c1
Video Timeline
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00:00 - Introduction
00:42 - Opal C1 specs and features
02:22 - Unboxing white version
02:49 - Unboxing black version
03:44 - 4K clarification
06:02 - Mac only (for now)
07:47 - Audio quality
10:19 - Video quality
11:51 - A look at the design
13:32 - Webcam pros
14:47 - Webcam cons
18:02 - Final thoughts
References
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My Everyday Tech: 2022! (Marques Brownlee) - • My Everyday Tech: 2022!
Opal Camera Reddit - / opalcamera
Find out more about me at www.kevinmuldoon.com - Наука та технологія
Good to see an honest review, unlike most UA-camrs who were clearly sent units to promote rather than genuinely review. A 4K camera that is actually a 1080p camera and where the mics don’t work properly, for over £200 that isn’t good value for money. Feels like a beta still. Will be returning mine.
Sorry to hear you had issues too.
I spoke to Opal about overheating. They advised that the latest firmware update should fix the overheating issue.
I had updated the webcam to the latest firmware, but they've asked me to do a reset and upgrade again, just in case it didn't update properly. If that does resolve overheating, I will do a follow up video and link the video in the description and comment area too.
I'm aiming to do that update next week when I have time to do tests. For example, I'll set it to 4K in Opal Composer and then record at 4K in OBS and see how long it stays on without overheating.
The mics were disappointing, especially as I had high expectations of them with their prominence at the front of the webcam. The question is whether the mics can be improved via software or whether it's an underlying hardware problem. It would be a game changer if they addressed both of these issues via software.
As you say, these are beta type issues and you wouldn't expect to see that in a product nearly two years after launch.
My interactions with them have been very positive. They're super nice and very professional and had no grumbles about me putting out an honest review. That's refreshing to see.
Additionally, I do give them credit for continually tackling these problems, especially as they're a startup who doesn't have the same resources as larger companies like Logitech etc.
Of course, good will and best intentions don't matter if a product is flawed. So I hope they fix the problems that are still prevalent.
Out of interest, did you face the same issues I did with the microphone? Did you see the overheating issue improve with the latest firmware upgrade?
Thanks.
Kevin
Can it also be used on Windows PCs without downloading the composer software?
Yes, it can be used with Windows as it's a UVC device so it recognised as a device ok immediately.
You can adjust some certainly yourself, but you are extremely limited with what you can do because there is no version of the software available for Windows yet.
On the plus side, they have filled out some firmware updates that have greatly improved cooling. I ran a test the other day where I recorded 4k for 30 minutes and it didn't shut down.
@@KevinMuldoon great, thank you so much for replying, if anything new comes out for the software on windows let us know, I started following you
@@manuelsammartino6272 Will do. I'd love to see them release support for Windows. I hope it's still something they roll out.
It's pretty underwhealming that their press units still have overheating issues...
I ordered mine yesterday so I'll check for myself. One thing to note though is that no one uses 4k for video streaming so if it behaves fine at 1080p, it's fine by me.
Let me know how you get on.
They have advised me to completely reset the firmware and update it again. I've just not had time to do that over Christmas.
1080p is sufficient in most situations. I do set my Sony 6500 to 4K when I use it like a webcam, just so it looks a little crisper when I downscale to 1080p. Though I'd be happy to use 1080p with most webcams.
Why do all youtubers LIE, they must be getting piad! the footage of this webcam is HORRIBLE!
I never got paid a penny. All the footage and audio was recorded directly from the webcam and I reported many issues I wasn't happy about.
The audio was bad but from a video perspective, it the video performs better than many camera and capture card combos. Overheating is the biggest downside though. Again, I reported all of this in the video.