Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
It was wishful thinking that the Opal C1 would be discounted for Amazon Prime Day. It’s not, but Opal is giving Verge readers the next best thing: an invite to buy one. You can bypass Opal’s invite-only system right now by using the code opalverge. Click “Reserve” at the top of Opal’s purchase page, then click “Buy with Invite” to enter the invite code. From there, you’ll be able to enter the code, then quickly and easily purchase a black or white Opal C1 without having to wait for an invite to arrive in your inbox.
The Opal C1 is a great webcam that I enjoy recommending to people who care about looking good during video calls. While pricier than most webcams at $300, it offers macOS users a lot of value out of the box in terms of providing a stellar picture that rivals that of a DSLR. I wrote a review for it last year, and our team made the video above to show it in action.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
Purchasing an Opal C1 right now loops you into complementary lifetime access to Opal vision, its growing platform of features. Currently, the Opal C1 works best with macOS computers, complete with its own beta software (keep in mind that, yes, you’re buying into a product that still runs on beta software).
Opal told me in 2021 that it intends to roll out Windows support this year. It hasn’t done that yet, though that hasn’t stopped me from getting along just fine with it plugged into my Windows desktop. It has no configurable software there yet, but it still displays a really nice picture.