Summer Infant Secure Sleep Digital Video Monitor with Temperature

We had the Goscam monitor before this, which was a bit crackly, and we have been through three of them due to technical faults. We got this one and it was way better than the Goscam. The picture is much clearer, the sound is good quality, and there are warning lights for how loud it is in the baby's room, plus the one we got worked perfectly. The camera adjustment is fantastic - very flexible to point it directly at the baby, and very easy to wall mount with a single screw that is included. The microphone is pretty uni-directional, so you don't pick up much unwanted noise. The temperature gauge changes with small fluctuations rather than an average over a longer period of time, and is a bit strange that 18º is considered too cold, but it is pretty much in agreement with our digital temperature control in the room. The batteries automatically recharge when it is plugged in. The screen will automatically shut off after a set time if you haven't pressed any buttons in battery mode; you can turn it on and off manually when plugged in. You can also adjust the light for the temperature gauge (including having it turned off). The only downside we have found so far is that you cannot put batteries in the camera unit to use it while travelling and the battery hatch is locked down on the viewing unit so you cannot replace them quickly yourself (the manual says to only use their recommended ones - it comes with a set of rechargeable batteries in it).
It saves us going into our baby's room to check to see what any noise is about by being able to see what is happening (black and white at night when it is pitch-dark in the room, but that is fine; full colour in daylight or with the light on). We are really pleased with this.
Make sure you get this one - don't get their analogue one (based on reviews of the analogue one we read prior to purchase).

As the first review states, the camera is good, the image is good, the audible sound is good, the parent unit is a good size and looks nice.

My baby doesn't need any music or to hear my voice for soothing himself to sleep, actually these things throw him off so for me it's not a problem that this monitor doesn't have lullabies, night light or two-way talk facility.

Now for the not-so-good points:
I can't really hear his breathing. I must turn up the volume to max and put the monitor on my ear and maybe I'll catch some breathing noise. Not nice!

The visually enhanced thermometer, although it looks wonderful and could be very handy, is always showing the temperature about 2 degrees higher than it actually is in the room. We think it's because the sensor, being on the camera unit, although not too close to the heat source of the camera itself, could be suffering influence from that heat source.

The switches on the parent unit are noisy. They do a "tack" noise when you press them. And, for instance: if you want to turn down the volume or the monitor brightness you can't just press and hold the button. You must press each time to turn it down, and it goes: tack, tack, tack, tack, tack. That noise, in the middle of the night, is quite loud and annoying.

Batteries: when disconnected from the mains the unit's batteries don't last very long. So here it's constantly plugged in. I've heard some people complaining that the camera unit only works on mains and not on batteries. To me personally that's not a problem but it can be annoying for some.

Also the unit comes with its own manufacturer set of batteries and when it runs flat you can't just replace them yourself, you must contact the manufacturer. But I don't want to think about it until it happens, to be honest.

Overall it does the job, I can see if the baby is on a safe position and can hear his noises and it does save us countless trips to the bedroom, but some improvements would be nice.

For our first child we have previously purchased the old summer baby monitor with the large black and white screen. We hadfound that fairly good although the picture and sound was subject to a lot of intereference. With our 2nd child we decided to upgrade and purchasd this monitor.. Wow, what a difference, its light weight, its portable, its a good screen and the sound is great. We have wirless broadband and a lot of electrical items but have been unable to get any interference with this unit! OK, the power on batteries is not that great, but then we don't need to use it without the mains very often. I would 100% recommend this product.