Summer Infant Handheld Baby Monitor, Wireless 900MHz
Written: Jun 25 '04 (Updated Jun 25 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact handheld, cordless, can hook to external devices, works in the dark.
Cons: Tends to overexpose in both light and dark situations.
Expensive.
The Bottom Line: There are other non-color baby video monitors ranging from $99. If the price does not deter you, this item is ok despite the overexposing issues I indicate above
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| gst88's Full Review: Video Baby Monitor Set |
If you are looking for a baby video monitor, where the monitor that is compact, cordless, in color and not the size of a portable tv, then here is one to check out (See my Pros and Cons below).
The handheld monitor and camera each come with an a/c adapter. The monitor comes with rechargeable batteries that charge from a/c adapter. There is also a cable that allows you to hook monitor to a tv, vcr or any other device that has a rca type audio & video jack.
This monitor from Summer Infant runs of the 900mz wireless frequency, which is fine if you don’t have any other 900mz devices which might interfere with the reception (If you do, you might want to check out a 2.4 Ghz version from Palmwatch). Both are available from the company I purchased our monitor from, Avtech Solutions.
Avtech solutions is an online company I found on the web. They had the best price and offered free shipping. My only complaint is that it took two weeks delivery even though it was shipped via UPS. If they would have told me that they don’t ship right away, I would have been ok. But it took a phone call and three emails to get a UPS tracking number from their customer service.
Pros:
Hand Held Monitor:
1. Compact handheld monitor with stand and belt clip.
2. 2.5” LCD color display (displays color when using light).
3. Works in darkness up to 6 feet away, via 9 infrared lights that cause display in black & white.
4. 900 Mhz frequency (If you have any other 900 Mhz devices I recommend you get a 2.4 Ghz
version)
5. Can be hooked up to TV or VCR with one video and one audio RCA jack. This means you can see your infant on tv or make a video on your vcr.
6. Two channels- incase one channel gets interference.
7. Rechargeable battery and a/c adapter that acts as a charger when plugged in.
8. Snooze button feature - while the video monitor display is dimmed simply pressing the snooze button will turn on the display for 60 seconds
9. Power on and low battery indicators & video screen time-out when operating in battery mode
Camera:
1. Camera Head rotates to many angles (Up, back, side to side).
2. Can be mounted on wall or set on flat surface.
3. Able to transmit clear audio and video up to 200 feet.
Note on camera:
Must be plugged in via A/C adapter.
The further camera is moved from baby the less effective infrared lights are.
Green LED in center of camera is bright in darkness (I put a piece of tape over ours).
Cons:
1. Infrared lights overexpose to the point of baby hard to see from too much light.
This occurs at the ideal distance where you would place the camera to see the baby’s head taking up the full screen.
2. With normal daylight picture also tends to be overexposed.
3. Green LED indicator shines in baby’s eyes- My solution was to cover LED with black tape.
4. Microphone is very sensitive, maybe too sensitive. We can hear ourselves downstairs in another room when volume is turned up, this also results in more feedback squeal. But on the other hand you can adjust the volume to the lower setting and still hear baby fine.
5. Very expensive when compared to other baby video monitors.
BOTTOM LINE:
I bought this item for $ 189.99. There are other non-color baby video monitors ranging from $ 99 to $ 234.00. If the price does not deter you, this item is ok despite the overexposing issues I indicate above. If they had a way to adjust the infrared lights and the exposure, this would solve the main problem.
On a scale of five stars I give this item based on:
Quality: 4 stars
Reliability: 4 stars
Optics: 3 stars
Price: 2.5 stars
View a photo of this item at: http://www.summerinfant.com/prod_monitors.html
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gst88
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Reviews written: 9
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