See It Now

So many document cameras are made more for the needs of businesses rather than for schools and end up being too expensive and with too many features that a teacher will never use. Califone’s Diggiditto Smart Document Camera is the first one that has been designed from the start for the classroom. With 2-megapixel resolution and 3X optical zoom lens, the USB-powered doc-camera can create 320 by 240 or 640 by 480 resolution video or 1,600 by 1,200 still images for a projector or large screen monitor. It has an adjustable stand, works with PCs only and sells for $600.   

Document Camera Two-For

If the idea of spending $1,000 on a document camera for your classroom makes you a little sick to your stomach, you’re not alone. There are just too many doc-cams that cost as much as – or more than – the PC it’s connected to. The inexpensive Epson DC-06 document camera is like a breath of fresh air in this area, with a price of $400, but all the features and abilities you need. Plus, it can do one thing that the others don’t. On top of being able to connect with a PC, the DC-06 can connect directly to Epson’s new PowerLite 86, 825 or 826W projectors. Its 10.7- by 14.3-inch document area is a little skimpy but should be fine for most uses and the camera can put XGA resolution on the screen. It comes with a LED light, 4X digital zoom and a one-touch focus button. It’ll be available in May.

See it All On Screen

When you’re showing how to dissect a frog or a page from an art book, there’s nothing like a document camera to put it all on the big screen. With its 1.3 megapixel camera, auto focus and an amazing 64X zoom lens, Elmo’s P30S can show anything from a science experiment to everyone’s signature on the Constitution in super-sharp high definition. A flexible articulated arm allows the camera to be angled in a variety of ways to catch the right angle. It has its own 3.5-inch LCD screen so you don’t have to continually look over at your PC to make sure you’re showing what you want and not you elbows.

 

Ready for My Close Up

If digital microscopes don’t have the optical quality you need to show what you want and document cameras don’t have the magnification, Nikon has an alternative: use a Nikon digital camera with the Fabre Photo EX hybrid. The microscope snaps onto the Fabre Photo EX stereo microscope to produce stunning photos. At $1,200, it’s pricey, but it can produce professional looking images of everything from a biology dissection to what minerals look like up close. It can be adjusted among 20-, 45-, 56- and 66-times magnification and it has its own LED light and the microscope runs on a single AA battery, which Nikon says lasts for 10 hours of use.

 

Document Cameras, Big and Small

Document cameras come in all shapes and sizes these days, from tiny fold-up devices to large tabletop models capable of high definition video with all the bells and whistles. Here’re two from the FETC show that caught my eye.

If most document cameras are too big and bulky to get up close and personal with things you want on screen, AverMedia’s VP-1 scales everything back to create a truly portable device. Small and light, the VP-1 is about as portable as visualizers get these days yet has a high-quality auto-focus lens, 2-megapixel camera and 8X digital zoom. Still, the whole thing weighs 2.4 pounds and folds up for storage or travel, making it great for sharing among classrooms in a school. It costs $450 and the company is at booth 268.

By contrast, the Lumens PS660 Desktop HD Visual Presenter is large and proud of it because its image quality and array of features makes it one of the most capable cameras around. It has a 15X zoom lens, HDMI connector and pan mode that allows lets teachers to go from page to page in a book. The best part is that it doesn’t care if you use a PC or Mac and it has been tested with display equipment from Hitachi, SMART, Promethean, Mimio and Polyvision. The PS660 costs $1,995 and Lumens is at booth 561

The Big Picture

Regardless of whether your classroom has a projector or a big screen monitor, the best way to keep kids from squinting at a document camera’s image is to use its highest resolution setting. Qomo’s QD6100SX can create a pinpoint sharp SXGA image and has a 10X optical zoom lens as well as a motorized camera that can pan across a page, book or Petri dish. A big bonus is Qomo’s Multi-Media Switching system that allows teachers to connect it to two computers as well as a DVD or VCR player. It comes with a remote control as well as a 2-year warranty and will go on sale in January 2009. 

The HD Classroom

Why continue using a low-resolution document camera with your shiny new HD monitor or projector? I can’t figure it out either, but AVerVision SPB350 Visual Presenter combines full 1080p HD output with a 5-megapixel imaging sensor and an articulated arm that makes aiming the camera easy. The SPB350 is network ready and has a 20X optical zoom lens so you can zoom in on the exact place you want to show or zoom out for the big picture. It may have it all, but the document camera costs $2,500.

Document Camera with Computer

If tying up a computer every time you need to use a document camera is cramping your teaching style, Samsung Opto-Electronics America’s UF-130DX Presentation Station is the closest thing to a self-standing presentation machine. With a built-in AMD processor and Windows CE, the UF130DX builds puts 720p resolution images at 30 frames per second on-screen. Just put your lesson on a CompactFlash, SD card or USB memory key and it’s ready for the class, the system can handle PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF and images. You can try it out at booth 1252.

Document Camera for Close-Ups

If items get blurry when you zoom in on them with a document camera, you probably need a higher resolution camera, like Samsung’s SDP-6500DXA. With 1.5-megapixels at its disposal, this camera has a 12X zoom lens for extreme close-ups as well as the ability to send its images to a PC or directly to a projector or monitor. Chock full of features, the SDP-6500DXA has a timer for creating elapsed movies, Secure Digital flash card slot and shake reduction circuitry. Price: $3,600.
Specs: ½-inch charge coupled device sensor, 12X optical zoom, 15 frame-per-second video.
Bottom line: Samsung’s SDP-6500DXA provides the vision to get every detail.

Document Camera Makes the Rounds

I really enjoy seeing a creative teacher working with a document camera and projector or large screen monitor to augment the curriculum with everything from a magazine article to live video of artifacts or lab equipment. AverMedia Technologies’ CP300 portable document camera makes it a lot easier to share these devices, rather than having one per room. Small, light and easy to fold up, it can go from classroom to classroom as needed yet faithfully reproduce images of 3-D objects with its 3.2 megapixel camera and zoom in on details. The camera costs $800
Specs: 24 frames per second of video, 3.2 megapixel images, 16X zoom.
Bottom line: Why get a document camera for each room, when you can share them.