Alice your camera question made me laugh because I am one 
of those "who are challenged by this digital technology" also.
In my case it was dumb luck that I happened onto a camera
to fit my courthouse needs. About 3 years ago my husband
acquired tickets to the Dover NASCAR race and sent me out
to purchase a camera suitable to take pictures at the race. 
Knowing nothing about digital cameras I went to Wal-Mart
and talked to a lady in their photo department telling her
what the camera was going to be used for. She hooked me up 
with a Kodak Easyshare P850. It's 5.1 Mega Pixels and
has an Auto Focus 12X Optical Zoom. It is rather clunky 
compared to the slim line cameras most people have but it has
many features that I later learned about. After the race my
husband indulged me with a couple of days of courthouse
hopping. It was then that I learned how awesome the 
document setting is. 

You can take pictures of the document and then
actually enlarge them to read from the camera viewer itself.
Once home I downloaded the shots into my computer.  
A few of the courthouses we hit were Fairfax and along the 
Northern Neck, Westmoreland, Richmond County (now Warsaw).
These places had no problem with a camera but some cities do.
My own city (Chesapeake) has an issue with it and does not 
allow cameras in the courthouse.  I find that redundant because
it's a waste of manpower and it's kinder to the record for me
to take a picture of it verses the copying machine. So far,
I've never had a problem taking photos from reference books 
in any library.


I don't know anything about the "DocuPen" that you mentioned
but if you are interested in testing a camera that can be done
at your local Wal-Mart where you can try it before you buy it. 
I'm sure the same holds true with Best Buy or any other place.

Good luck and happy hunting !
Vicki Ford






  I have thoroughly enjoyed the comments regarding Ancestry/LDS Data/Heritage Quest, etc.  Now I have a question for Vicki...you mention


  "I've found that the best investment that I've made was in a digital camera with a document setting. It saves time and money copying docs in courthouses as well as copying pages from reference books in libraries."

  I have often thought this would be a good method of obtaining copies of certain records and purchased a camera probably ten years ago...however, it never did what I wanted so gave up on it...Would you perhaps discuss this type of camera for those of us who are challenged by this digital technology?

  Also, any of you who may have experience in using  "digital pens" in copying old handwriting like in the deeds and wills...I would love to hear about that technology.  When I first learned of "DocuPen" I contacted the manufacturer to ask about that use and to see what they would say to providing one for me to try and give them a report...needless to say they were not impressed with my offer and suggested I buy one, and they had nothing to offer about the results of that type of scanning...so I did not buy it when they could not answer my questions.

  Alice in Fluvanna





   
         
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