I am having more of a need for the ability to obtain copies of the older ledger size deed books and older plats that are not on line.
I have the Cam Scanner app on my phone, and it works pretty good. I have seen many attorneys use ipads or larger tablets with cameras to take pictures of deeds or plats.
I have the Magic Wand handheld scanner by Vupoint. It is pretty slick, but it only scans 8.5 inches wide. It would be nice to be able to have a single picture or pdf file of the ledger pages. Most of our ledger size books will not come apart. It would also be nice to have larger images of the older plats.
What do you use, or what would you suggest? I like the idea of the tablet, because I could see the image immediately after taking it, or before I take it.
Thanks,
Jimmy
> What do you use, or what would you suggest?
When photography is okay, I just use a digital camera without flash. It works perfectly well. I just print the jpeg images on an 11x17-format copier to get paper copies for the files. Was this a trick question? :>
New phones are coming out with a 13mp camera and some models have better than that.
There is a menu inside of Camscan to improve the image.
Not all clerks will allow you to open their books to have access to single pages and some of the books around here are bound and it helps to have another set of hands to hold the book pages flat while you shoot the image.
A few years ago I saw a group of 3 lease hounds working in an assembly line to process the image files taken with a camera that was connected to a laptop so they could see instant quality and place in the correct file while two others were bringing them the books.
A camera will autofocus much better than the phone and is capable of capturing a better quality image.
There are virtual printer routines that will convert a group of jpeg files into pdf files.
Docscan HD
I use Docscan HD on an iPad mini. It will allow you to AirPrint, and upload to Box. I also use it on my iphone. I think it works great. If I can not get a good scan on my iPad I use my phone that has a flash. Docscam HD has a great function that will allow you to straighten out a page that is curved from a deed book that is not able to be opened all the way. It works great.
Hope that helps
Matt
I haven't done it yet, but I think I would go with a higher-quality camera. It seems like you could check the quality of the picture before you leave.
I've been using an app called "Scanner Pro" on iPhone and iPad. It's fantastic. Much more features than a digital camera, so, no, Kent, that wasn't a trick question.
With a good scanner app, the digital image is immediately processed into a PDF and is uploaded to a cloud storage account, such as Dropbox or iCloud. It will allow multi-page PDFs to be created, and the user can adjust the brightness or contrast on the device before uploading to the server.
The page size can be selected; legal, or letter, or tabloid, or custom... And the image can be color, black and white, or grayscale.
The ScannerPro app by Readdle is found on the apple App Store, I think it's universal (buy it once, it loads onto your iPhone and iPad,) and I think it's under $10.
Uploading a plat or deed from the field, and then having it sitting in your PC workstation, waiting for you when you return to the office is so entice.
No digi-cam can compete with a good scanner app on a decent handheld device, when connected to the network.
Thanks Guys!
I am looking hard at the Samsung Galaxy Tablets.
I know Stephan Ward has his loaded up pretty good. I might take another look at his at the TAPS Conference next week.
Jimmy
I'll have it with me. Looking forward to the conference.
> No digi-cam can compete with a good scanner app on a decent handheld device, when connected to the network.
Okay. So, you take the digital camera back to your office and ... print copies from it. Wasn't that the whole object of the exercise? :>
My experience is that it needs to be 8 megapixels or better to get a decent pic for most common text pitch. Of course megapixels isn't everything. Some of the tablets still don't have much in the way of cameras. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8. I like it, but the camera isn't great (I think 5 megapixels and poor quality as well).
I could be wrong, but I think the image stabilization capability is more important than the megapixels. My old Blackberry took ok document pictures with just a 3 megapixel camera, better than my iPhone 4s which had 5 megapixels (I think). I've now upgraded to the 5s and it's definitely better than both of those, but I believe it has more to do with the image stabilization being improved than the extra megapixels. I remember before digital cameras you'd need a tripod to take close-up pictures like that, or maybe use a super fast film and shutter speed. The problem was camera movement. Image stabilization didn't exist, so you'd either have to hold that camera rock steady, or set the shutter speed so fast the camera didn't have time to move during the exposure.
So this is where the old rpls'ers went. I recognize a lot of familiar names from when I was a lurker (for the most part) a few years ago. I'll try not to be a pest, but I'm not promising anything!
