Which document camera should I purchase?

StupendousMan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
1,909
I'll be teaching classes from home in the fall. I need to purchase a simple, barebones document camera to replace my "smartphone sitting on a stack of books" technique. Any recommendations? I'd prefer a unit that can work with Linux and MacOS.
 

TenCentBeerNight

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 11, 2009
521
UK
I'll be teaching classes from home in the fall. I need to purchase a simple, barebones document camera to replace my "smartphone sitting on a stack of books" technique. Any recommendations? I'd prefer a unit that can work with Linux and MacOS.
Do you want this so that you can write on a document and live broadcast what you are writing to a class, via Zoom or similar?

If it is only documents you want to show, you might consider using something like a Wacom tablet instead. They are super cheap and quite easy to use once you get used to not looking at your hands while you write. I did all of my online teaching last term using one and it went reasonably well. A bonus is that you can then save the documents you write on direct to pdf and mail to the students immediately after a session, and they are much smaller than a document camera.