If you’re like most parents, you’ve tried innumerable ways to rig something up to safely keep an eye on your children in the back of the car while driving. The Yada Tiny Traveler Baby Monitor for your car allows you to do just that very effectively!
Note: This review is of the slightly older wired camera model. There is a newer wireless camera version mentioned later in the review.
The Yada Tiny Traveler comes with a 3.5″ video monitor that easily mounts to your windshield with a typical suction cup mount. The camera, which works great both at night and during the day, comes with two mounting options–a headrest strap or a suction cup mount with a flexible arm. Whether your child is front or rear facing and regardless of what type of headrests you have, you can mount the camera with one of these two options in a way that will get you a great view.
Because my son is front facing, I used the headrest strap to easily mount the camera on the back of the passenger seat.
I then placed the monitor on the windshield, low and in the center, as recommended. Another minute to connect all the wires and the whole system went from box to live in under five minutes. The last baby mirror I tried to install took me longer than that and never even worked right!
Our first test drive was bright and early with plenty of sun, but the matte screen does wonders to prevent glare. I was able to carry on a conversation with my son and watch him with ease.
The biggest negative for me is the cable running from the camera to the monitor. Thankfully that is no longer an issue with the newer Wireless Model. The newer model does not require the camera to be plugged into the monitor and the monitor features a larger screen (though I did not have any problem with the screen size of the older model). One thing to note, though, is that because the camera is not connected to the monitor, it needs its own power source. On a larger vehicle with multiple DC outlets, this wouldn’t pose a problem. You could also get a dual DC adapter if you only have one outlet in your vehicle.
Overall, I’m very happy with the Yada Tiny Traveler Baby Monitor. For $99, the ability to easily see my son in the backseat without having to risk turning my head away from the road is definitely worth it.
Note: I received a review unit, but all thoughts and opinions above are my own.
