Hardware

Review: Epson DC-30 Document Camera Highlights the Details

This document camera’s zoom capabilities allow instructors to get up close and personal with any object.

Carlos Soto is an award-winning reviewer and journalist with 20 years of experience covering technology and business within various sectors and industries.

In the classroom, document cameras are like icebergs. On the surface, they seem pretty straightforward as a way to amplify whatever books or papers instructors put under them, and many years ago, that is all that those so-called opaque projectors did.

Today, however, there is much more going on underneath. Document cameras can focus on nearly any kind of object, highlighting very fine details to share with the class and even recording videos and classroom lessons for later use.

Document cameras and their opaque projector precursors serve a great function, but they have traditionally been hard to set up and use. When I conduct lectures, I love to use them. But I have wasted a lot of time trying to get books or documents in position, especially when I needed to focus on a specific part of a text or photograph.

Traditional document cameras are also heavy, difficult to control and have limited capabilities beyond a manual zoom. Thankfully, the Epson DC-30 document camera has been designed from the ground up to overcome those shortcomings, making it a perfect tool for use in higher education classrooms.

Click the banner below to learn how to modernize your learning environments.

hied-classroommod-animated-2023-starthere-desktop

hied-classroommod-animated-2023-starthere-mobile

Epson DC-30 Can Adapt to Changing Learning Environments

I spent a few weeks testing the DC-30 with a variety of media, and the results are astounding. It’s not a clunky old projector at all, weighing in at only 6.11 pounds and consisting mostly of an articulated arm holding an HD camera that can be moved in any direction.

As my lecture plans changed, either in response to questions from students or because I needed to take things in a new direction, it was easy to reposition the camera and zoom in on a different element of the document that I wanted to highlight.

The camera also offers extremely high resolution. It can shoot pictures or videos at up to 4K with the 13-megapixel camera. And it has a 10x optical and a 23x digital zoom. At one point, I was able to zoom in on a painting and examine individual brush strokes. That would not have been possible with an old-school classroom projector.

Epson DC-30 Offers Powerful Video Capabilities

While the DC-30 most likely will be used to highlight stationary objects such as books or documents, it’s also a very capable video camera. Because it has a built-in microphone, it can record lectures, which can then be saved to through the USB port to any flash drive. It can also snap pictures of stationary objects too, which can be saved as JPEGs to the same drive. To save time, an instructor could snap a bunch of pictures of objects for a lesson before class starts.

DISCOVER: Learn what’s next for displays in higher education classrooms.

The Epson DC-30 is a perfect tool for any classroom, especially one where sharing the contents of books or documents can enhance lessons. It’s a versatile tool that is extremely easy to use and can enhance student engagement.

SPECIFICATIONS

MAXIMUM DIGITAL CAPTURE RESOLUTION: 4208x3120 (4K) with 23x digital zoom
VIDEO RECORDING MODES: 1080p or 720p at 60 fps
PORTS: HDMI input and output, USB Type A, Mini USB Type B
STORAGE: USB Flash Drive
DIMENSIONS: 6.3x23.1x21.8 inches
WEIGHT: 6.11 pounds

Getting the Most From Your Document Camera

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is very true in higher education when faculty can share concrete examples of the concepts they are teaching. A document camera can be a perfect way to do that, empowering educators to share everything from books or documents to paintings and photos with the class.

But it’s also critical to ensure that a document camera designed for the classroom has some key features to keep the focus solidly on the lesson at hand. Devices such as the Epson DC-30 are specifically made to work well in that environment. Those key features include:

1. High-Quality Imaging. The DC-30 high-resolution camera captures detailed images and videos at 1080p or higher, and high-level zooming ensures that everyone gets a great view of the materials.

2. Simple Controls and Connectivity. The Epson DC-30 is user-friendly and its controls and interfaces promote easy operation, including snapshot capture and zoom functionalities — great for faculty who might be less tech-savvy. Additionally, the DC-30 supports USB and HDMI connections, giving instructors the flexibility to share their feeds in a variety of ways, including online streaming.

3. Flexible Design. The Epson document camera has a flexible and adjustable arm that can be easily positioned to view documents or objects of nearly any size and from virtually any angle.

4. Portability. The simple design and flexible construction make the Epson lightweight and compact so it’s easy to transport between classrooms or share with a pool of users.

5. Built-in Microphone and Recording Capability. An integrated microphone provides enhanced audio capture for videos and presentations, and my test unit offered the ability to record presentations or lectures directly — a key feature that is ideal for education settings.

6. Image Enhancements. Features such as autofocus, image flipping and mirror modes lead to better sharing and accuracy, even if the camera is looking at an oddly shaped object or one with moving parts.

7. Multiformat Support and Integration With Software. The Epson DC-30 document camera is compatible with various educational and presentation software packages. I tested it with quite a few, including business collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and they all worked great with the DC-30.

KEEP READING: How to optimize the classroom technology you already have.