Used Hovercam Solo 8 Document Camera 8.0 MegaPixel

Good hardware and software quality
Good hardware and software quality, worked without a problem on Windows 10, highly recommended

“Possibly the best document camera ever built.”?? Possibly the worst software ever written…
So far, complete disaster: (Mac OS X)1. The software is installed from a USB drive built into the camera. When I tried to open the installer package, I received a warning that the certificate for the package was revoked.2. Went to Hovercam’s site to download newer package. Hit Downloads/Hovercam Flex link at bottom of homepage. On resulting page it says, “This software is for use with all HoverCam legacy document cameras: Solo 5, Mini 5, Neo 3, T3, T5. SOLO 8 USERS BE SURE TO USE THE SOFTWARE (FLEXVIEW & FLEXCAP) THAT IS INCLUDED WITH YOUR CAMERA FOR THE OPTIMUM EXPERIENCE.**” Well, that was helpful.3. Used Google to find actual page for downloading correct software. Downloaded and installed. Seems to work OK. But then the software asks if I want to download latest version. Well, what did I just download from Hovercam?4. Click OK. Takes 3 tries to install latest version.5. Run latest version. Camera no longer works.6. Get camera to work by plugging/unplugging. Stops working again. Very mysterious.7. Play around with settings. Try to change “Display Size” to something different. Get message “It’s not available in current version. Coming soon.” Now display size dropdown menu is frozen. Restart.8. Try to look at user manual using button in Settings menu. No manual appears, button seems dead.9. Picture quality is mediocre. Color is awful. Any way to play with color? Dunno. Can’t get the manual. None came in box.10. The LED lighting is anemic and very non-uniform.Well, that’s my first hour with the Hovercam Solo 8. How will yours go?Added later: I found how to adjust contrast, brightness, white balance, etc. You need to hit the Focus button on the toolbar. Not very intuitive. And hard to find, because there is no manual for the Mac version of the software, and the Mac version looks very different from the Windows version. And now I see why I didn’t find this before: If I click on the Focus button using my mouse, up come the panel for balance, contrast, etc. But if I click on the button using my trackpad, this panel does not come up (!!??), except sometimes I can see it flicker for a fraction of a second.Also, the screen often goes blank for no reason.Also, the record button doesn’t work reliably.Also, you can’t save any of the balance, etc., settings.Also, if you hit the hardware focus button on the cam itself, all the balance, contrast etc. settings change, so you need to redo them all.—— OK, I tried it one more time today. Still having problems. If I record one video, then stop, then try to record another the screen sometimes goes black and have to restart the software. Another time the screen didn’t go black, but the camera zoomed all the way in by itself and couldn’t be unzoomed. All these issues are so odd that I have decided that there must be a hardware problem, so I am returning it. A colleague and I are working on a project where we each need to record, and he enthusiastically recommended this camera. To keep our project consistent, I want to use this camera, so I will order another. I will report back on how it works. I am not going to order it via Amazon, though. The fact that the software in mine had the certificate revoked implied that it was very out of date, and that the camera may have been an older one. I am going to call Hovercam and order directly from them (perhaps: Their website says, “In Stock: Ships within one month”, whatever that means.)

LED light glare kills the deal.
The image display was excellent. The quality of construction and materials was also excellent. My problem with this device was the glare from the LED lights on the objects I wanted to scan. To photograph flat objects properly there should be two light sources each at a 45* degree angle shining on the object. This scanner as well as all the other stand-based document scanners currently available have not addressed this problem. The lights are set to shine directly down on the page (not at the proper angle) and this creates glare. and until a better design comes along – glare in copying books and photos will be a constant problem. How about a simple LED light bar set in a V-shape to overcome this problem? Maybe someone in engineering will read this and quickly design a solution.I researched this item for quite a while before I ordered it – hoping it would do all I needed. I was impressed that it worked with my MacBook Pro out of the box. No problems at all in setting it up. BUT. The glare from the LED lights killed the deal. I returned it.I am disappointed because I really wanted a touchless scanner for the thousands of books in my library that I wanted to preserve in pdf format. If you only want to use it for a camera or to scan single sheet paper documents this might be great – but forget doing books or shiny photos-the glare killed the deal.

Great for Creating Flipped Classroom Videos
I use this camera for presentation of problem solving procedures and organic chemistry reaction mechanism. This camera is great for recording whatever you’ve written on paper (which is a lot more natural than recording a screencast). The smooth high quality video will allow you to record great flipped classroom videos. I also use the Swivl to record my voice and facial expression while I present using the Solo 8.