This is my first exposure to baby monitors. However, I have wireless internet security cameras, so I used that as a starting basis for my evaluation. The product came in eco-packaging. There was a camera, receiver, battery for the receiver, and two wall-wart power supplies. The camera does not come with a battery and needs to be installed within a few feet of a power receptacle. The receiver unit can be plugged in or used with the battery. There is a clip on the unit to allow you to carry it with you (such as on your belt). However I found the clip to be a bit questionable. It is mounted low on the receiver and the clip is not spring-loaded. The clip is much better suited as the flip-out easel stand.The receiver video screen is in color. The color tends to be a little on the magenta side, but the resolution is excellent for the size. The camera optical quality also seems to be quite good. I was very surprised by the high quality of the images. The camera also uses infrared leds so it illuminates a dark room when viewed with the receiver, and yet no visible light is seen from the camera itself. The brightness of the screen can be adjusted with the controls on the receiver, so it can be used in sunny rooms or even outdoors, or inside rooms with no lighting. Speaking of outdoors, the camera is not suitable for outdoor weather, but it looks like it can be used outdoors on nice days if protected from moisture and extreme temperatures.
The camera also transmits audio back to the receiver. It does this surprisingly well and it also has intercom capabilities. There is a row of green and red leds along the top that light up according to the sound that is picked up. A crying baby would cause the red leds to light, but ordinary sounds only cause 1 or 2 green leds to light up.
There is a foldable antenna on the reciever, but I could use the camera anywhere in a 3500 sq-ft single-level house without needing the antenna to be extended. It may be needed in a multilevel house.
The system did not come with a manual, and no manual is on the website as of this date. It took several minutes to figure out the functions and settings of the buttons on the receiver. It isn't that hard to figure out, but really there should be at least a one-page document to explain the controls inside the box.
I plan to actually use this device in my outer office. When the receptionist is away, I can see people come into the outer office and actually speak to them if needed using the intercom capabilities of the camera. It doesn't take the place of a security camera because it has no recording capability, but it will be nice to see who comes and goes while I'm in another room. The receiver can link to several more cameras, but I have no ability to test this feature, and I don't know if it cycles through each camera automatically or if you have to press buttons to manually cycle.
I'm really impressed with this camera system!
One really cool feature that I like and extremely useful is the two-way intercom. I also use it with my middle schooler who is studying in the room to come down when it's time for dinner
It's much more simple to use. You don't have to dig deep into the menus to adjust or find the feature that you need. I like the bigger buttons much more than the ERA's, the later is similar to an iPod's clikwheel which is hard to feel when you are pressing it. The plain white looks makes it looks much cleaner.
Another feature that I like with this monitor is that it doesn't have the red LEDs around camera even when it is on. You can put it on top of the shelf and nobody knows it is on. It is almost completely discreet except for tiny green LED on the side.
It uses a replaceable Lithium-ion battery at 3.7v with 1050 mA. The battery lasts much longer than the ERA 12103, even with the video on. The power adapters that came with it is rated 100-240v.
Cons:
Unless the room is well lit, most of the time it is in night mode and there is no color.
It has a stand but no clip to hang to your belt or clothes. I'm very impressed with the video ability of this monitor, particularly the night vision. I didn't expect to be able to see that well in a dark room but this little camera provides what looks like a light on your baby or other subject without any visible light coming from the the camera itself. This camera has 8 invisible infrared LEDs, not the red lights like some other cameras. You can see up to 12 feet away with the camera and monitor. The image on the 2.4 inch monitor screen is very clear and in color when it's light. It gets a little grainier when it's dark in the room and then the images are in black and white. But all of the images are still distinct. The camera can be adjusted 240° horizontally and 65° vertically as you swivel it in its base. It can be mounted on the wall (hardware not included) or you could just set it on a table, pointed in the direction of your baby or other person, pet or object. It's easy to adjust the brightness on the monitor unit. You can use as many as 4 cameras to view different angles and sides of the room and switch between them on one monitor. There is a stand on the monitor, but not a belt clasp but presumably with a video monitor you'd want it in front of you, rather than on your belt where you couldn't see it. You can turn the video off to save on battery power or set it in the power save mode which will turn the screen off automatically if there isn't movement for a minute or more. It turns back on when movement is detected.
The microphone is very sensitive and picks up any sounds in the room. There are little green lights on the front of the monitor increases from a single light to as many as 5, depending on the amount of sound. A loud noise will turn the lights red. Since you can mute the sound on the monitor unit, even if you had the sound off, you'd be able to see if a noise is made, such as a baby waking up and crying (or talking about his E-Trade financial adviser :) ). I was impressed by the sensitivity of the mic to pick up even very faint sounds. You can also push a button to talk to baby but the sound that comes through the camera is kind of harsh sounding. One thing you want to be careful of is walking into the same room as the camera when carrying the monitor. The feedback makes a loud screeching sound. I've found this to be the case with other monitors as well.
The camera is always plugged in and comes with a power adaptor. The monitor also comes with its own power adaptor and is plugged in to charge its rechargeable battery. With the video on, the battery lasts for about 6 hours. But since you can turn it to standby or turn it on only when you detect a sound in the room, it usually lasts more than 24 hours. My review unit came without any instructions but you can download a manual at: mylevana.com/files/30000/manual.pdf It was pretty intuitive and I only used the manual to check on a couple of features after I already had it set up.
I love the compact size of this camera and monitor and its attractive design. The night vision without emitting any light of its own is really kind of amazing. It has a good range of at least 500 feet so I was able to go anywhere in my 3700 sq. foot house without losing the signal. The color screen is very attractive. And this monitor could be used for many other purposes such as monitoring a sick person or pet, or monitoring a door or area of your home or office without spending a lot of money. The small size makes it easy to pick up and move to another area without a lot of installation worries or expense. I'm impressed that technology has come this far on such an inexpensive little unit. Note: Levana has a twenty page, illustrated manual for the "Lila 2.4-Inch Digital Video Baby Monitor with Talk to Baby Intercom 32000" available on its website. Like other Vine reviewers, my components arrived in the recyclable box without a users manual. So I got on the Levana website, and engaged the "Live Chat" function. "Charles" came on and gave me the address for a pdf version of the manual. Its a 20 pager with nice illustrations describing all the many functions available in this small but powerful unit:
"mylevana.com/files/30000/manual.pdf" (yes, 30000, not 32000).
"Charles" said that the "Lila 32000" was released just a few weeks ago, and a direct link on the website will be available soon.
The monitor has excellent fidelity in both bright and low light situations. With plenty of light, the color is OK. In low light situations the reception goes to black and white but again, fidelity is actually amazingly good. The audio reception (gathered by the camera and broadcast by the monitorr) is very good and includes a volume control. From the perspective of the "baby," the audio transmitted from the monitor and broadcast by the camera is also quite good. Although you have to wonder what the baby is thinking when she hears Mom's voice, but can't see Mom.
Other reviews detail most of the controls, but here are some specific items which aren't intuitive you actually have to read the manual to figure this out:
1. Push the on/off button on the monitor and you turn off the video, but not the audio. Hold the on/off button down for a few seconds and you turn off the video and the audio.
2. In order to speak to the person on the camera end, you must depress and hold the button on the monitor marked with the "microphone" icon. You must release to listen again.
3. There is a screen brightness setting (five different levels) that allows the user to pick a preferred tradeoff between brightness and battery life (most important if you aren't plugged into AC).
4. There is a battery saving mode that causes the monitor to enter standby/sleep mode after one minute of inactivity. When a sound is detected, the screen changes to live view.
5. The monitor can be set to pair with as many as four different cameras! Press the "pairing" button on the camera to acknowledge and lock in that specific camera to one of four numbered camera icons on the monitor.
The reachargeable battery comes separately in the box and once in place, the back of the monitor is difficult to seat easily, but eventually everything snaps together. There is a strip of green lights on the top of the monitor which give a visual measure of the amount of sound coming into the monitor.
For the price, the Levana "Lily 32000" is a very nice, high quality video and and audio monitoring device. If yours arrives without the user manual, download it using the website address above, and it won't take you long to learn all of the features. This is a good option for a portable baby camera solution. It has good color resolution, night vision capability, and is fully portable -with a rechargable backup battery. It also has audio, and allows you to push a button and talk back to the camera. (Unfortunately when you talk back it sounds very Darth Vadery and creepy, and definitely NOT something that would easily calm down a crying child.) It also has an antenna that can be flipped up to give you a full range of 500 feet. Finally, it allows you to turn the brightness up or down which is what you'd need to do if you wanted to use this outside.
PROS:
+++ CAMERA IS COLOR. Aren't they all, these days? But, in any case, it is color and looks nice.
+++ HAS NIGHT VISION. Once the room gets dark enough the color disappears and the picture becomes black and white, but allows you to see in the dark.
++ NO VISIBLE LIGHTS. Well, only one, a green LED, on the BACK of the camera... but nothing to keep baby up, like the red LEDS that used to be used for night vision use in older cameras.
+++ GOOD AUDIO. You can hear pretty well from the camera's microphone and there is a neat LED across the top display which lights up more LEDs the more the camera picks up noise. So, there would be a visual indicator of red LEDS if the baby was crying. (Presumably you'd hear the crying, too, but I suppose if you muted it you'd still know the baby was crying by the LED indicators.)
++ TALKBACK FUNCTION. You can press a button and talk back to the camera -it acts just like an intercom. This might be useful if you were using it in the house with young children.
++ EASY VOLUME UP OR DOWN. Right below the screen there is a very simple to use volume toggle.
+++ RECHARGEABLE BATTERY. This is pretty awesome. You can unplug the monitor station and take it with you around the house.
++ CAN HOOK UP MULTIPLE CAMERAS. I didn't use this function but I found the menu on the device. It clearly can hook up to three other cameras, and you can view them at the same time (I believe) while then selecting the main camera to watch. I did not test this function so please do your own research on this capability.
++ MONITOR FLIP OUT STAND. This means you can place the monitor almost vertical, which provides an easy viewing angle.
CONS:
-TALKBACK FUNCTION SOUNDS WEIRD. It sounded ok, but metallic, and a baby might not be soothed. I see it more working as an intercom for adults.
-NO INSTRUCTION MANUAL. I did not receive a manual in the box. I didn't really need one, but it would have been nice. (NOTE: the manual MAY have been missing because it was an Amazon Vine Product. This may not be standard for new purchases.)
SOMEWHAT HARD TO INSTALL BATTERY. I almost broke the case when I was installing the battery. It was close, so take some time to take it apart and put it back together carefully. There are little ridges of the battery holder which can snap off. Mine didn't, but when I was blindly trying to force the battery compartment closed they almost snapped.
-NO BELT CLIP. This kind of cripples the use of this as something you'd wear while working outside. But, on the other hand, presumably you'd want to SEE it, and wouldn't want to carry it around on your belt. That said, it would have been nice, at least to help in monitoring a baby sleeping.
Overall, I am happy with this product. Recommended.
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