One great way to keep students interested and engaged throughout class is by using document cameras. With the recent upgrades and newest tech, document cameras have become necessary for any teacher looking to end the printing of thousands of sheets of paper a year. Besides, they are great tools for video conferencing and online classes to stream and share documents with students.
The Top 6 Document Cameras Reviewed
1. IPEVO – Our Choice
The IPEVO Document Camera is easily the best document camera for remote teaching on the market. It adjusts and captures the document in no time so that learning can continue in seconds.
It comes with an 8-megapixel camera that can easily capture and produce a high image quality of the document. Your students will be able to see what’s going on, and you won’t have to worry about the temperature of the light you’re using.
This camera offers full-frame, HD, live streaming so that no lag is present while in use. It’s a 15 FPS camera, which means you won’t have to deal with that annoying lag every time you write or move something.
The multi-joint system is easily adjustable to fit the needs of the lesson. No more static cameras that lag and bore students out of the lesson.
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to adjust your document camera to capture the document’s image accurately. Focusing has always been an issue with document cameras, but no longer with the IPEVO. This product is perfect for a medium-sized classroom. It presents an image in 3264 x 2448 pixels. Larger conference rooms and college lecture halls should come equipped with their gear – they might not see this product’s real benefit.
It’s also a fantastic way to stream and share documents with your students via online classes. As most classes transition towards distance learning, many teachers have noted how useful this product has proven to be for the online classroom. You can easily stream the scanned pages to your students without lag, and the quality is still amazing.
2. iCODIS – Best to Fix Documents
The iCODIS Document Camera is a fantastic product for any teachers obsessed with tech and utilizing the latest the industry has to offer. It comes with all of the bells and whistles that other cameras are just now starting to implement and will be a great yet affordable product for any classroom. Sharp images are the name of the game for this camera.
It can create the perfect scanned page for your students. One of the coolest features this camera has is the ability to document fixes. If there’s a tear in your corner and part of the page is missing, the camera will fix it and bring the page back to life when showing the image to the students.
It comes with an 8-megapixel camera and a build-in LED light to produce the perfect image when transferred to the classroom projector or personal computers.
This document camera can record video and real-time projecting, making it a fantastic camera for teaching or meetings. It’s only compatible with Windows so any MacOS devices won’t connect to the camera. This portable camera can be brought with you from classroom to classroom and is the perfect device to get the students’ pages.
This camera is easy to transport and can reproduce a fantastic image even without any internet connection. It takes no time to create high-resolution scans that can be reproduced on students’ computers or up in the front of the classroom.
The software itself is simple to use and quite user-friendly. You might need to use a CD to install the software, which is a little outdated but not an issue if you have a CD drive.
3. iOCHOW Document Scanner
This document scanner offers many of the best qualities for teachers looking for a classroom document camera. If you’re looking for a great camera that provides a real-time projection for students to follow along and eliminate any lag, then the iOCHOW is a great option for you.
The 8-megapixel camera and 4 LED fill lights make this a great document scanner and live image producer. It creates near-perfect, lag-free images for your students to follow and create the perfect learning environment in any classroom. The software is easy to use and simple to install on any Windows device. Much like the iCODIS, it can fill broken corners for a more professional look when scanned and projected.
This camera can capture images that are clear and crisp. Even over remote learning, this camera becomes pivotal as you can now send the documents to students paper-free.
The LED lights are not the brightest and produce a darker image than necessary. It is not compatible with macOS, only Windows devices, eliminating many teachers from using it.
4. Lumens – Super Light-Weight
Lumens Document Camera comes with a built-in microphone which is something many teachers are looking for specifically. Most document cameras tend to come with rigid arms that aren’t that adjustable and lead to difficult angles and lighting problems. With the Lumens Ladibug, that’s not a problem at all, as the flexible arm easily adjusts and changes angles to almost any degree you need.
On top of the flexible arm comes one of the best FPS rates we’ve seen in a portable document camera. With 30 FPS images, Lumes provides a smooth and kind image for students to observe throughout the day. It can be quite frustrating to see a laggy image for an entire lesson, and many students might check out.
The hands-free autofocus will allow you to keep teaching without worrying about keeping the picture clear. Rather than downloaded software, this camera works via a USB port.
This device is easy to use, as it works via a USB port. It’s compatible with most interactive whiteboards, which allows you to combine two of the best tech found in the classroom. Installation is simple, and the quality that this little bug can produce is astonishing. Many higher-end devices struggle to produce as well as this one.
5. Elmo – With Digital Zoom
The Elmo Document Camera is the ultimate document camera, and the price accurately reflects that quality. Suppose you’re looking for an industrial-strength camera that produces unmatched images and lives, lag-free video with a digital zoom of 192 times. Typically, these document cameras are purchased by corporations or schools for every classroom.
As long as your device has HDMI capabilities, then this one will work for you. It has HDMI in and out access and works via USB. The RGB settings are high-end and produce one of the best images.
Elmo knows their teachers and has designed this model to work best with them in mind. No longer will you have to print out 20-30 pages of paper for one class. Elmo 1379 is a great document camera but comes with a hefty price tag.
The ease of use is one of the leading factors for teachers to purchase this document camera. It produces an incredible image that has absolutely no lag with the 30 FPS rate it offers. You can easily switch between the computer and the projector so that any student can access the images and video at all times. The only downside is that it’s not too portable as the neck can be compromised.
6. OKIOCAM – Super High-definition
The OKIOCAM Document Camera is a super high-definition document camera and webcam in one. Offering ultra high definition 1440p, 30fps, autofocus, and auto exposure, this camera has a 3 axis tilt to capture from all angles. This camera has two modes, a top-down model for documents and a selfie mode for online teaching. It also has a detachable camera head that would fit on a tripod mount. It is compatible with PC, MAC, and Chrome.
Unlike any other document cameras for teachers on this list, this one is a two-in-one camera designed with educators in mind. In fact, it comes with dedicated education apps to help utilize Google Education, Google Drive, and Google Classroom. A downfall of this is that you must have Google Chrome to operate this webcam. To switch from top-down mode to selfie mode is so easy. It can flawlessly be done while teaching class.
The document portion of the camera can shoot worksheets, books, drawings, crafts, and even 3D objects with a max shooting area of 13.7” by 18.9”. This is big enough for a textbook with both pages on the screen at once. We love that this camera is multifunctioning. As if it couldn’t get any better, it is compact and can fold up into a backpack for easy transporting. We love this product because of its functionality and ultra-high definition.
Summary
Document cameras are great tools for teachers to deliver an effective lesson in class or online, but choosing a document camera for your classroom can be a difficult task. Sometimes, you are required to meet constraints; other times, the camera isn’t good enough for your students.
One reason why document cameras have become more popular than old-school overhead projectors is that they are simple to use and with a minimal setup. The most common way of using a document camera is the data projector display method.
If you have a smaller group, you can also connect the camera to your laptop or computer monitor. Some classrooms have TV Screens on the wall, which can also be connected to document cameras. The only device they can not be directly connected to is an interactive board.
