#IP camera vs baby monitor?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

last garnet
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Having our first kid soon.

We do want a camera monitor of some sort. However, we cannot decide between buying an IP camera and setting it up as a baby camera or buying an off the shelf solution baby monitor.

What are your suggestions and pros and cons?

Being able to use the camera for other stuff in the future is kinda nice.

There is currently a decent deal on TP-Link Tapo C225 atm.

lapis raft
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how pissed off will your partner be if they cant monitor the baby because you messed something up when installing a new bulb?

jokes aside: whatever solution you go with its probably best to have a backup solution to access it.

reolink ip cams are pretty nice. if i was getting new ip cams they would be at the top of my list

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in the high stress situations of being a new parent for the first time. something off the shelf might be a good idea. thats not to say you cant suppliment it with something down the line. but keeping it simple might be easier for everyone

zenith tundra
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I personally preferred a traditional baby monitor camera that wasn't attached to the network. We have a secondary tapo camera as well but it is only turned on if someone is babysitting for us so that we can view the camera remotely if needed

light stream
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We were considering the eufy E20 (2K with 4x zoom) or E21 (4K with 8x zoom + charging stand). Both come with the standard camera you can view live through the Eufy app but also with a handheld screen. This gives me the flexibility to use the camera as I would any IP camera but also have the handheld screen thing so that my wife or mom can use this when I bring the camera over and there's no confusion with linking accounts or adding apps to phones and such.

last garnet
last garnet
zenith tundra
heavy cipher
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I used the Philips one. Simple stuff, cheap and low range tbh but get the job done

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For the advanced setup, when me and my wife would like to go on a walk, we videocalled and left one phone filming the baby monitor 🥲

surreal copper
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Second the Infant Optics DXR-8. Simple and works well.

Also, seconding something that works out of the box. I had big plans for all kinds of automations with my first kid. As soon as they came, there wasn’t a chance of me completing any of them for months.

Learned my lesson when I had my second. Got all my automations and integrations squared away a month in advance.

light stream
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Can someone please tell me what I'm missing when it comes to the Infant Optics ones being recommended? It seems like just a much more expensive version of many of these baby monitors/smart camera baby monitors, with overall fewer/worse features. You can find highly-rated no-wifi or hybrid wifi cameras for a fraction of the cost if you just search 'baby monitor camera no wifi' right now on Amazon. Is it a brand thing?

surreal copper
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Well, I got mine a few years back. Maybe there are more, better or just as good options now. Haven’t had a need to do extra research.

I don’t know how other will compare, but key things that I think matter, PTZ, 2-way audio, signal range, multi camera, size of monitor itself, zoom lens capabilities. Oh, and charging flexibility. Like, AC adapter or USB.

zenith tundra
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We started with a cheaper camera first and ended up having issues with it. In the midst of lacking sleep, and everything else going on with a newborn I felt better going with a more recommended brand regardless of the price to avoid any additional headaches. I'm sure the cheaper ones would work perfectly fine and likely have improved in recent years

quick sapphire
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I'll second reolink ip cams. I've only just gotten mine and they were dead easy to setup. Very cheap considering how feature packed they are. And it's all local. I have reolink duo 3 Poe cams and it was quite literally plug and play to the reolink NVR. Reolink has a wifi option too that operates locally but I wouldn't run cams on wifi tbh