HoverCam Neo 3 Document Camera Review
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Is your school one of the many that has cut budgets yet needs new technology? I’d love to introduce you to the HoverCam Neo3 Document Camera! It’s a fantastic price for what it has to offer!
It folds flat down like this for easy storage and is compatible with BOTH MAC & PC. Plus the really cool thing about this is that you don’t actually need a paper document to use it – you can use the document directly off of your computer.
You can even scan your paper document and use the file on your computer as well as upload it directly into an online cloud service or even transfer it directly into Microsoft Word or PowerPoint! You can also easily integrate your document via the Neo3 and also use your interactive whiteboard!
The quality of the image is also very clear which is vital!
The Neo3 easily folds up when you pull it out of storage and is very simple to maneuver. One feature that our teachers really utilized is the fact that it has TWO cameras.
There are SO many things I can think of to do with this from skyping with other classrooms around the world, authors, other teachers, or even sick students who might be missing class!
Plus you can even record your class or meetings and turn them into podcasts and send them to students who have missed school. Utilize both cameras at the same time for the picture in picture feature!
You can see here the smaller in the camera that is unfolded and can be rotated 360*! Great for panning the classroom! The camera can easily be folded away into the arm when it is not being used. You can also see that on the far right of the arm the other camera is there viewing the document below.
The arm of the HoverCam Neo3 is easy to move up and down and as you can see the camera can also be used at an angle.
Here is the smaller camera up close.
At the base of the HoverCam are buttons for maneuvering just about anything that you would need during the cameras usage. They were easy to get to but the slight downside is that they are not labeled so you need to learn which ones focus, switches modes, etc.
The HoverCam also came with a mat to lay your document on but it took us a while to figure out exactly how to align it.
PROS:
*user friendly
*software included – no disc needed
*very bright backlight
*good quality picture
*entire set up is small & saves space
*2 cameras for picture in picture
*excellent for price
*video in HD – good quality videos
*works with MAC AND Windows
CONS:
*buttons aren’t labeled so you don’t really know which one focuses or sets a different mode
*included mat is confusing to use
*the zoom could be magnified more
For the price – this is an absolutely fantastic product. In fact it’s such a reasonable price (retails $299) that my husband (a teacher and principal) said that he would prefer to purchase TWO of these Neo 3 document cameras instead of one ELMO.
It’s a very versatile product and can be used for not only the classroom but also in meetings, homeschool sessions and presentations. It’s easy to carry around and requires virtually no set up time.
The funny thing was that while we were using this product at our school my husband found out the our local school districts all use the HoverCam Neo3 Document Camera as well!
You can purchase the HoverCam Neo3 directly from HoverCam and also on Amazon.
Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. I received the above product to use in order to form my own opinions. All opinions are my own.
