Levana Stella 4.3" PTZ Digital Baby Video Monitor with Talk to Baby Intercom

I firmly believe that the entire baby monitor market is a huge ripoff... but the Levana Stella PTZ seems to be as good a value as you're going to find with these products. We've been using it with our newborn for about a month and have been satisfied with its performance.Good:-The pan-to-zoom feature is a definite must-have. We have a crib, a swing, and a bassinet which we use to put our newborn to sleep. It's great to be able to point the camera at her, wherever she's sleeping. We have the camera mounted on the wall and it can sweep pretty much the entire room. Just plan where you place it well and it'll be able to get the whole room in view.-The monitor unit works well and lasts 3-4 full nights between charges. There is a low battery warning, so it doesn't just turn itself off. The package comes with two charging units - one which is plugged into the camera full-time, and one which you can use to charge the monitor unit. The settings on the screen are not at all intuitive, but the manual spells them out clearly enough. The audio quality is good, and the video quality is acceptable. I can tell whether or not baby's mouth is uncovered, whether or not baby's eyes are closed, etc. The monitor comes with a little kickstand to prop it up on a flat surface, and it fits into my pockets to take with me. The range is pretty good - it works in the basement, and our nursery is on the 2nd floor. It starts to lose signal if I'm outside in the yard, though.Bad:-The cord on the charger is quite short. We had to add an extension cord to get the camera mounted high enough on the wall.-The speaker on the monitor unit is on the back side. If you set the monitor down on its back (with the display facing up), you won't be able to hear anything because the speaker is blocked. If you set this down, you'll need to use the kickstand. If you carry it in your pocket, you need to put it in with the speaker facing out of your pocket and not into your leg, or you won't hear baby making noise-The LED is very, very bright. When the monitor is on standby (baby is being quiet), it flashes once every 10 seconds and is bright enough to be a nuisance at night. I have to face it away from me on the nightstand or it is very noticeable with my eyes closed.-The camera has a speaker so you can talk to baby or play music... but the audio quality is awful. I've never used this feature, except once to scare my wife when she was in the nursery. I can't imagine it would soothe a baby at all.Overall, there's no way this is worth almost $200... but I think it's one of the best values in baby monitors. You're paying for a webcam, a small motor, a microphone, and a tiny display & speaker. I can't imagine this costs more than $30-$50 to make, but the market charges what it can get! I think the video is a worthwhile trade-up from audio-only monitors, so you have peace of mind with a newborn that they haven't rolled over or gotten their face covered by blanket. And the pan-to-zoom feature is a must. You want to be able to leave baby sleeping wherever baby wants to sleep! Moving the camera is a lot less painful than moving a sleeping baby (who might then wake up...).

Nice monitor, especially for the great price on Amazon. Good, clear picture; as others have mentioned, the colors aren't very vivid unless the room is in very direct, bright light, but gets the job done just fine. The viewing angles are excellent as well - you can pretty much put it on any wall or in any corner, and view the entire room due to the 270-degree horizontal rotation and 110-degree vertical rotation. I do wish it would do a better job of rotating downward; depending on how high you want to mount it, it's very hard to sit it flat on a shelf and see the whole crib, unless it's very far away (horizontally) from the crib. Rather, it seems to be designed more for a wall-mounted setup (which is fine, and it works well this way, just limits options).A couple issues, both with the power cord, keep this from being a 5-star rating:1. First, at 6 1/2', it's not nearly long enough. This seems to be an issue across most baby monitors; Google pictures of wall-mounted baby monitors and you'll see power cables and extension cords just dangling everywhere. This isn't ideal from either an aesthetic or a safety perspective. Ideally, you'd want to be able to mount the monitor high, and conceal/secure all wires. But at the current length, there's no nice way to do this unless you have outlets in or near the ceiling. Luckily, I was able to find an in-line DC extension cable that fits this monitor (though that wasn't an easy task either, since it is impossible to find out from the user manual, Internet, or Levana customer service what size plug is used). This allowed me to run enough cable to mount it high on the wall and hide the cables (in one of those cord-hiding tubes mounted to the wall - check Lowe's or Home Depot). Anyway, if you have the same problem, search Amazon for "DC extension cable" - the 3.5mm (OD) by 1.3mm (ID) cable fits the camera. It's the one that says it fits "Foscam, Agasio, Tenvis, Loftek, etc." (I don't know what size fits the monitor/parent unit - it's smaller - but a shorter cord isn't an issue here.)2. Second issue is the orientation of the AC adapter plug itself ... at least in the unit I received, the plug body extends horizontally rather than straight down. This usually isn't a big deal, but in this case it is because it won't fit in any of the available outlet safety covers (i.e. the ones you screw or latch to the outlet to cover outlets that constantly have things plugged in to them). It appears other retailers sell a version of this product with a white AC adapter that extends vertically, so not sure why that isn't standard.Otherwise, a very good monitor, and you can't beat the price on Amazon ($119 at time of review).

Good monitor.....night vision is actually very good.....I can clearly see my dogs face when the camera is about 10 feet away from him in a pitch dark room (tested on the dog while we await our baby!)

Love Love Love this video monitor. It's exactly as described, very clear screen, doesn't cut out and it doesn't feed off wifi so it can't be hacked!!! Highly recommend!!!

Its great!! Works well only if you mount it. If you don't you won't be able to adjust it to where is needs to go.

Excellent monitor with a large clear screen, great range, ability to move/pan the camera and a very helpful "peek" setting that allows you to conserve battery life by turning on only when noise is detected. This monitor fulfilled all of my expectations and more.

Very happy with this purchase, very simple to use... Works flawlessly ..