Caperton Society Blog
Visit this Blog to keep track of whats' happening on this site, and anything else I may have on my mind!. The Blog is open to all to view (including the comments), however, you must be a registered member to add a comment on the entries. Registration helps me to fight spam.
- Details
- Category: Caperton Society Blog
The Capertons first came to America in the 1700’s. This book traces the various Caperton families from their arrival in America down through to today. The first Caperton to America was John Caperton who married Polly Thompson. John and Polly had eight children, four sons and four daughters. Seven of these children moved west, and it is these adventurous people and their families who were in the forefront of the Western migration and settlement of America. Capertons have been leaders in almost every facet of American life; including Senators, Admirals and Colonels. In 1792 George Washington even nominated Hugh Caperton as a Captain in the new Army he was forming! With Bernard M. Caperton’s The Caperton Family, as a starting point, virtually every section has been revised and expanded. Additional sections include the life and times of several descendants including the Life of James Kelly and Hugh Caperton; a treatment on the Capertons of St. Cuthbert Parish in Wells, Sommerset England; a history of Elmwood mansion; and a look at the advances of DNA testing and what it means to tracing Capertons.
The Book is available on the Caperton Society WebStore so please check it out.
This basically explains why so little has been updated on the website, as all of my free time lately has been devoted to completing the book. However, shortly I will be providing information on the future of the site. I have quite a few upgrades planned for the site, that I think will be of help to all those research the Caperton name. The one thing that will not change however is that there will STILL BE NO ADVERTISING!!! I have managed 15 years without advertising and I wear that like a badge of honor!
- Details
- Category: Caperton Society Blog
And the Winner Is....
Once I had my requirements in hand I began researching the Document Cameras that are out there and pretty quickly began focusing on a Company in San Diego California called Pathway Innovations and Technologies. They sell a variety of cameras that appear to be targeted at the Teaching profession, with focus on cameras in the classroom. They offer several models with a couple of them falling within my requirements. The two specific cameras are the HoverCam Solo 5 and the HoverCam Solo 8. The model 5 is a 5 mega-pixel camera while the HoverCam Solo 8 is their new 8 mega-pixel model. Being a bit of a tech geek, knowing that the 8 mega-pixel was out there meant that I would never be happy with the 5 mega-pixel camera even though the 5 did satisfy my initial requirements list. So after downloading their manuals, drinking up everthing available on their website, I turned to the web again to see what others thought of this camera. After additional research I decided to take the plunge and order the HoverCam 8. To be fair the 8 did tick at least one more box than the 5. The hoverCam Solo 8 uses USB 3.0 technology to communicate with the computer while the Solo 5 is only USB 2.0. Since my Samsung ultrabook also had a USB 3.0 port the allure of faster transfer speeds was more than I could resist!
The HoverCam Solo 8
So how did the HoverCam Solo 8 satisfy my requirements? Let's go thru them one at a time.
- Resolution - this one was easy, at 8 Mega-Pixels the camera exceeded the requirement substantially.
- Image Type - The Camera takes TIFF as well as JPG images. It also allows you to save images as PDF's. something I had not even thought about when I started out on this mission.
- Ease of Use - There are quite a few nifty goodies that come with both the softwre and the camera itself. some of them are: a button right on the camera that allows you to focus the image without having to go back to the computer and make adjustments using the keyboard and mouse; it has a auto shoot option that allows you to set the camera up to automatically take the photos so that you can speed thru documents with many pages quickly.
- Compatible Software - good news on this one, while it is PC compatible there is also software for Apple computers.
- Under $500 - the camera cost me about $350 which I actually paid. I did not try to talk them into a free camera just for this review.
Upon delivery I opened the box and lifted out my new toy. My first impression was that it looked and felt well built. I would not say industrial strength but sturdy nevertheless. Removing if from its box and plastic bag was straight forward and I want to note that the box and packaging appear to be designed to store the camera when not in use. By this I mean I did not have to take a saw to the packaging to get the camera out. This was the first of many brownie points earned by Pathway Innovations Technology. Even someone like me, with thousands of pages to scan will not be using the camera day in and day out, so it was nice to see that it would easily go back into the box it came in. Also included was a bright green rubber mat with various markings on it.
- Details
- Category: Caperton Society Blog