IP Camera for Baby Monitor

[anagramjones]

Do you guys use IP cameras as a baby monitor?

My wife and I are expecting in January, and I recently bought a dedicated baby monitor (Summer Infant Baby Touch 2). It had horrible reception, couldn't connect the monitor to the camera even though I was standing right next to it, so I returned it and want to look into using an IP camera instead. Actually, I had originally intended to go with an IP camera but picked up the baby monitor on sale. Anyway, now I'm thoroughly soured to the idea of a dedicated baby monitor.

I bought a D-Link DCS-5020L from Best Buy the other day for $109 Canadian + tax but haven't opened it yet. SNB gave a pretty good review of it and I think it'll serve my purposes. I like the idea that I can probably log in from anywhere over the internet, among other things. I'm looking at different models now to find the best balance of functionality and price.

You guys have any experiences with using an IP camera for baby monitoring?

Thanks

 

[stevech]

not baby monitoring, but other surveillance.
Infrared lighting is the issue.

You'll also need to set the camera to a static LAN IP and setup port forwarding on your router.

Lots of sub US$100 cameras with pan/tilt/zoom. Depends your your video quality expectations. Really good video takes a good camera, like US$300 or more.

 

[anagramjones]

from what i've been reading, the IP surveillance cameras like the DCS 5020L seems to have night performance at least as good as dedicated baby monitors. actually, i think that baby monitors are overall inferior in performance while being more expensive, simply because people are more used to the idea of dedicated baby monitors.

plus the IP camera can involve somewhat more setup and tweaking, but i'm not worried about that as i have a good amount of experience with home networking and such.

i don't think i need anything with super high video fidelity requiring a $300 camera, though i think Axis models are in that price range. not keen on spending that much in case i'm not accurately anticipating my needs, so a lower priced option gives me some more flexibility in case i need to retool.

 

[stevech]

My neighbors used a low cost analog camera and handheld receiver with 3 inch square display. Worked well in the house and outside to about 50 ft. away from house, e.g., standing in the street watching the other kids.

I'd go this way rather than the WiFi route... simple = more reliable, better safety. That cam might have been 2.4GHz so you need to coordinate what frequencies it uses vs. your WiFi channel choices.

cam for distant viewing via the internet could still be an IP cam.

 

[magicrude]

Try this baby monitor

I have been using this baby monitors for 3 years now since its purchase it has actually stayed long and durable and on top of that it's affordable The babymonitor that I'm using are great for upcoming parents.

 

[pusb87]

Ive been using a couple of the Sricam IP cameras you can find very cheaply on fleabay and I have to say they work remarkably well.

Ive not had to do any port forwarding, static IP's etc to have them working.

Your not going to lose to much money by trying one of them

Oh yes, and the IR capability is quite good as well...

I was very pleasantly surprised at how good they are for such low cost