Document camera (a.k.a. visualizer) vs. some DIY and iPhone

During my years at German European School Singapore I learnt to appreciate the document cameras I equipped the biology and chemistry rooms with. How to reach that standard or keep it up, if your school does not provide you with the budget to buy them - coughing up 850 Euros for an AVervision V300AF+ out of your own wallet is surely not an option - I reckon.


I took the V300AF+ as a reference because of my very good experience over the last 4 years with that brand and the model itself.

It looks well engineered, seems to be robust and gives me a 3.2MP camera to use for projecting objects and worksheets and other documents on a whiteboard for result checks, common correction or marking of students work during my lessons. Do not get my wrong - I love those document cameras.

But hey, my iPhone 5 has an 8MP camera and autofocus as well, even a LED flash is available.
So why not using my iPhone as a document camera? I am sure other smartphones will even give you a better pixel count.

With this thought in my mind I went for some shopping and found this great gooseneck universal smartphone mount - it has a length of a good 60 cm and a clip at its end. The brand is "CHINA" so you probably have to source for something similar.

Here are the pictures of the unwrapping.

So this gooseneck will provide a sure mount for my iPhone atop of any desk. See below:

Almost there now - last challenge to be solved is the connection of my makeshift document camera.
There are three possibilities.

1. the hardware solution: Use a lightning to VGA/ Digital AV Adapter - available from Apple store.

2. the Apple TV solution: Should you be blessed with an Apple TV connected to your beamer/ projector then just use airplay and display mirror on your iPhone.  WIRELESS!

3. the Reflector solution: Should you have a Macbook or PC laptop connected to the beamer anyhow, then just get the software called reflector. It is available and will give you the possibility to mirror your iPhones display on your laptop. WIRELESS!

There you go - cost breakdown for the most expensive case 2. Even buying an Apple TV plus the 20 Euro for the gooseneck mount I am roughly at a fifth of the costs of a document camera.

Here is the final result of 10 minutes of work, writing this post is included. I used combination 3 for now.

A wireless document camera for small bucks. Have fun trying it out yourself and feel free to post your experience as comments and add more ideas. By the way, there are similar iPad mounts available as well.