The top selling gadget for the baby nursery is without a doubt the baby monitor. There are several types to choose from but the video baby monitor is the most popular and also the most versatile. You can use the same baby monitors with camera for the infant nursery room, as well as other locations. This type of baby monitor is also perfectly usable for somewhat older infants and toddlers that are still in crib age since many of them have two way audio communication.
Overview and selection of digital baby monitors.
Here is a shortlist of what the market offers and our selected product that we feel provides the right balance between quality, functionality and price.
Rechargable Color Video Baby Monitors
Almost all monitors these days have a color screen. While some are bigger than others we feel the resoluton and size of the screen is less important that the battery life of the handset (bigger screen = less battery life). Because of this, we have chosen as the best color video baby monitor the Levana BabyView 20 which provides four and a half hours of continous baby security on a single charge. You can extend this duration by choosing the standby mode which only activates the video baby monitor when the baby makes a sound. This infant monitor also has a built in nursery night light and lullaby songs.
Baby Video Monitors with multiple cameras and microphone
A baby video monitor builds on the same principles as any surveilans video system. You have a camera and a monitoring device which can often switch between cameras and also steer the direction and view of the video cameras. Some baby monitors with camera allow you to extend the number of cameras. If you add cameras, one feature you really want is to be able to divide the screen to show several views simultaneously. We select the Lorex Live Snap as the top performer because of the wide support for using several baby monitor cameras with a single hand unit. As a bonus, it also has automatic night vision and two way talk to baby voice communication. Baby and mom can communicate with each other wirelessly with a video monitor with talk-to-baby audio feature. This is a true digital baby monitor with secure signal and a wireless range of 450 feet.
Pan and Zoom Video Baby Monitor
The most exclusive type of video baby monitor has camera units that allow you to pan and tilt the camera view remotely. This type of video baby monitor is the best type to go for if you know you will be changing locations a lot, for eaxmple from nursery, to holiday home, to family visits, etc. Since the camera units can be remotely controlled this also allows you to monitor larger areas such as playpens, garden areas or other areas where you want to mkeep an eye on your toddler. Our choice is the Summer Infant Touch Digital Video Monitor. This unit is less portable than the others but offers a large touch screen interface that you use to pan and zoom the camera. This baby video monitor kit also comes with a medicine dispenser.
