We are thinking about purchasing a video baby monitor. There is so much variety out there I don't know where to start. Any recommendations or one's to stay away from would be great. Also, does anyone know if the 'night vision' light is really bright on the cameras that have that capability??
We have the Summer Infant Day/Night video baby monitor. We've been very happy with it. It stopped working shortly after the warranty expired (probably the charger broke) but the company sent us a new unit anyway.
My husband surprised me and purchased the Summer Infant Day and Night with handheld monitor- and I LOVE IT! I'll never go without again! The peace of mind being able to look in on our son without going into the room is priceless... What's great is you can use only vision (and turn sound down if you don't want to hear crying, etc), only sound or both. I simply sat the camera on the back corner of the crib- and once he started to play with it when he was a little older (i.e. a year) and I was concerned about choking or strangulation, I took a simple white cup hook, and screwed it into the corner of the ceiling- and voila! Now, I get a bird's eye view and it's completely safe... I recommend this for every parent!
About 3 1/2 years ago (right before my first was born) we bought a night vision video monitor from the Sharper Image (online). It was very pricey >$300 but we had a 50% off coupon so we tried it. It was horrible. The screen was always scrambled and had a lot of static. So we drove 45 miles to return/exchange the monitor at a Sharper image store and found every one in the store itself had the same defect. I am not sure if they are still selling them but I would not consider buying that one if you are looking at it.
Instead we opted against the video monitor and got the Sony Baby call. Excellent monitor. Used it with both kids. Has voice activated feature so that you don't have to hear every movement/snoring etc from your baby (you only hear if he screams) so that you can get some rest. Also it is great because it doesn't pick up the music in the background if you decide to have music put your baby to sleep. Just a suggestion....good luck.
We have the Summer brand. I LOVE it - It's nice to peak in on her and not have to go into her room! It's supposed to be in color but you can really only see in color when it's bright out. The "night vision" works great - there's a little green light on ours that shines into her crib but it's so dim it doesn't bother her. I would highly recommend it!!
Good luck!
WE also have the Summer Video monitor. We have our son up one floor and to avoid going up and down the stairs to peek in and see what is going on. We can now know when he wakes up-but is going back to sleep versus really upset. I had to try to place the monitor around the house in a few places because of some interference in our bedroom. we have it in our living room and works great. The little green light is plenty to illuminate the baby. play with the camera a bit with a doll in the crib to position it(the camera) to catch as much of the crib as you can (we used the screw and also some 3M foam tape to position it just right.
