Methods and systems for remote deposit of financial instruments are disclosed. The method may include using a mobile device such as a tablet computer or smart phone to automatically review live video data to determine a location of a check in the video image, and to obtain a still photo of the check image in response to determining that the mobile device is being held at a desired steadiness. The method may include providing a user with visual feedback that the mobile device is actively tracking the check. The method may further include cropping the captured check image and sending only a portion of the image to a remote server to verify a check MICR line has been captured. The method may further include a virtual endorsement module executable by the mobile device to apply endorsement information to a check image. A mobile device with a processor and memory containing instructions to execute the method is also disclosed.