2014 Parrot MiniDrone Jumping Sumo Review: Another Good Drone for Beginners and Kids?

MiniDrone Jumping Sumo - What's The Big Deal?

If you've read this blog, you know that I'm crazy about drones. I might have around 200 of them in my garage in various states of flight-readiness. However, that doesn't mean I'm done looking at them, and when something new comes out, my wife will confirm that I'm first in line to pick it up and try to crash it. I mean not crash it. Well, Parrot released their MiniDrone Rolling Spider the other day, and I loved it, so when I was offered the chance to pick up a MiniDrone Jumping Sumo, I decided I was up for it, even though it's not technically a flying drone.

 Structure, Design, and Guts

The MiniDrone Jumping Sumo has a somewhat silly name, but it's not designed to be a serious drone; when I want HD coverage and the ultimate flying experience, I turn to my Phantom 2 Vision+. When I'm looking for something far out in left field, the MiniDrone Jumping Sumo can fit the bill. The drone is honestly designed for either beginners who are curious about drones but aren't willing to spend tons of money on them or kids. Between the two demographics, I'd say it works quite well as a kids' drone, especially with the wackiness of it. I mean, it's a drone that jumps.

Inside the box, besides the drone, you also get odds and ends like stickers for customization, a battery, and so on. There's no radio transmitter; it's designed to be controlled through your smartphone or tablet. I've got both, and find it easier to control through my iPad, especially since the screen, being bigger, gives you more room for your fingers when steering. However, either will get the job done well enough.  The app for controlling the drone, Free Flight 3, is a free download and is available in both iOS and Android functionality.

The drone itself has a funky look that reminds me of some kind of large bug crossed with a muscle car. It's strange, but it works. The wheels are large and made of rubber.

OK, a bit more about the camera. It's capable of shooting video and streaming it on the fly, which I like, and it's the typical wide angle that we've come to expect from most cameras attached to drones. The resolution is rather low at 640 x 489, but considering that this resolution is greater than that on regular SD TV, and we enjoyed that for years before digital came along, it's not that bad. If you're looking for built in HD coverage of the car chase you're hovering above, however, you'll want to look toward the larger AR Drone or the Phantom FC40, Phantom 2 Vision, or Phantom 2 Vision+, which is my favorite of the three. Yes, I have all three. Maybe my wife is right when she calls it an addiction.

What's It Like to Use It?
This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. The experience of using the MiniDrone Jumping Sumo is a pretty fun one. You can make both vertical and horizontal jumps with the drone, and you can execute quick 90 degree and 180 degree turns. You also get to press buttons to make the actual jumps occur, and you can target jumps that either go higher or farther.

You also get a live video feed through the MiniDrone Jumping Sumo's camera, which provides a squirrel's eye view of the world as you're moving around with the drone. I'll be honest; when you're not jumping, the effect of controlling it is rather similar to that of using a radio-controlled car. However, there aren't any R/C cars that can jump like this.

The battery life isn't the best on the drone, and it's a good idea to buy some extras. However, it's a lot better than it is on many other drones I've used, especially the MiniDrone Rolling Spider. I'd estimate you'd get somewhere around 20 minutes, which is more than enough for a good amount of jumps.

To be honest, the biggest downside to the drone for me is simply that you can't use it to fly. However, my kids don't mind that when using it, and my son astutely pointed out that this meant the drone was much harder to lose in a tree. I had to admit he was right.

Should I Buy It?

In short, yes, as long as you're okay with staying on the ground with it. It's a fun, sprightly little drone that has the potential to entertain drone pilots--err, drivers--all day long.

I readily recommend the MiniDrone Jumping Sumo. You can buy it from Amazon in white, black, and brown.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 Parrot MiniDrone Rolling Spider Quadcopter Review: Best Drone For Kids?

Parrot MiniDrone Rolling Spider - What's The Big Deal?

While I spend the most time flying my Phantom 2 Vision+, I'm always on the lookout for new cheap drones that I can buy, test, and review, especially onoes that are good for kids. My wife calls it an addiction; I call it a pretty awesome hobby.

Either way, when a designer at Parrot contacted me and let me know that the MiniDrone Rolling Spider was coming down the pike, I started putting my pennies together in order to bring one home. Since it costs under $100, it was an easier sell to the wife, and from the time I've spent playing with my production model, it's worth every dollar. My kids love it, and won't let me have it any more.

 Structure, Design, and Guts

The MiniDrone Rolling Spider is a small drone that somehow still reminds me of Parrot's much larger AR. Drone, which I have a ton of fun flying whenever I want something different from my Phantom. I'm not sure where the similarity comes from, but it's there. Perhaps if the AR Drone were hit by a shrink ray and given a set of awesome side wheels.

Being smaller means there isn't as much room for some of the features that make the AR. Drone one of my favorites to use. For example, there is only one camera present instead of two, and it points straight down. However, that's not something that'll keep first time pilots or kids from enjoying it.

Out of the box, the MiniDrone Rolling Spider is rather straightforward to assemble, which makes sense since it's mostly targeted at either kids or adults who haven't flown drones before but are suffering from a serious case of drone envy. There are sticker sets in the box in case you want to make yours look more unique, and they aren't nearly as cheesy as I thought they would be.

There are a pair of plastic wheels that you can attach to the MiniDrone Rolling Spider or leave off; if you leave them on, you can fly the drone up walls and pretend you're scaling them like Neo in The Matrix. I personally found them most useful for keeping the tiny plastic propellers away from our cats, which were drawn to the drone more than they typically are.

OK, a bit more about the camera. It's capable of shooting video and streaming it on the fly, which I like, and it's the typical wide angle that we've come to expect from most cameras attached to drones. The resolution is rather low at .3MP, but considering that this isn't a drone you're buying for surveillance photography, it's not that bad.

If you're looking for built in HD coverage of the car chase you're hovering above, you'll want to look toward the larger AR Drone or the Phantom FC40, Phantom 2 Vision, or Phantom 2 Vision+, which is my favorite of the three. Yes, I have all three. Maybe my wife is right when she calls it an addiction.

At any rate, the design touches clearly illustrate that this is a drone designed for people interested in having light fun with an affordable drone. It's a small little thing that even fits in your hand! I still have trouble getting over that, as this is definitely the smallest drone I've ever flown. I weighed it with my personal scale and it comes in at 55 grams, which is only 1/6th of my AR. Drone. However, thanks to Parrot's ever-impressive technological know-how, you still get a pressure sensor so the drone can figure out the flight altitude as well as an ultrasonic sensor that allows you to fly precisely while you're close to the ground. And the camera I mentioned? It's capable of shooting at 60fps. Not bad, right?

What's It Like to Use It?
This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. It's a fun little drone to fly! It's a drone controlled through smart phones, which I'm not very used to, since I'm old school and prefer a radio transmitter, but I have to admit that the smartphone gets the job done.

I time the flight time at around 8 minutes without the wheels and 6 minutes while the wheels were attached, which is right in line with Parrot's estimates. It might be a good idea to buy an extra Lithium-Polymer battery (or 2, or 3) in order to have a good amount of fun before surrendering all of the batteries to the nearest charger. Charging takes 90 minutes.

The range is limited to 20 meters, or around 66 feet, which is more than enough to play around with given the small size of the drone. I measured its top speed as around 11 mph via my pocket radar gun, which matches perfectly with what Parrot told me to expect.

There are a number of tricks you can do with the drone, and you can even download the ways to do them through the MiniDrones FreeFlight 3 app that Parrot make available for download. For example, you can perform u-turns as well as half-turns simply by swiping your smartphone, and by clicking you can perform front and rear loops. The app uses Bluetooth Smart to connect to the MiniDrone, and is fully iOS and Android compatible. If you decide to buy the MiniDrone Jumping Sumo, you can also use it to control that drone too.

The stability of a drone is something important to me, as there's nothing less useful than a drone that can't balance enough to stay in the air before tipping randomly toward the nearest animal, child, or grandmother. Fortunately, there are several stability systems built into the MiniDrone Rolling Spider, including an ultrasonic sensor, a pressure sensor and the vertical camera I mentioned earlier, and a 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope. The drone isn't rock solid, but it's stable enough that I wouldn't have any concerns handing my phone over to a child after a few minutes of practice.

Should I Buy It?

In short, yes. It's a cheap, fun, and exciting drone that works well out of the box and is kid-friendly enough to use as a first drone for kids. I can verify that both girls and boys enjoy it, and you can use the stickers on it to customize it to your kids' preferences. I'd like a longer flight time, but that's easily solvable with extra batteries. Overall, for a first drone, it's a solid little machine that can be used as a stepping stone to more expensive drones or as the only drone you might ever need.

I completely recommend the Parrot MiniDrone Rolling Spider. You can buy it from Amazon here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 UDI U818A Quadcopter Review: Best Sub $100 Quadcopter Drone?

UDI U818A Quadcopter - What's The Big Deal?

I'm always a fan of drones that don't cost an arm and a leg to afford, and the UDI U818A Quadcopter fits the bill nicely, coming in at well under $100. I'm an unabashed fan of my Phantom 2 Vision+, but there are often situations where I don't want to put a $1000 drone at risk, such as when flying a drone in a foreign country, or when flying a drone over water. Drones like the UDI U818A Quadcopter are excellent low-risk drones for beginners and experts who want to save the more expensive gear for safer situations.

 Structure, Design, and Guts

First of all, I'm a fan of the design; it reminds me of my Parrot AR Drone, except that you can't switch the hulls. Oh, and it's a lot cheaper. However, something I've noticed about a lot of the sub $100 drones is that they look rather childish and come with silly names, such as Bumblebee, Fly, Bug, and so on. Because I'm not a character in Finding Nemo or Toy Story, I find it hard to take such drones seriously, and I doubt many other grown men and women who enjoy flying RC helicopters, quads, and drones would take them seriously either.

Fortunately, the UDI U818A Quadcopter appeals to my sense of style (or shallowness? Depends on if you're asking my wife...), and UDI realized that simply because they were selling a budget drone didn't mean they had to make it look and sound silly. I also like how it's a decent size, and I also like how slick and professional it looks. Let's face it; everything probably looks better in black. That said, it's also available in white, which is nice if you want it to match your Phantoms.

Stats wise, the UDI U818A Quadcopter shares a lot with its fellow budget drones. There's a 4 channel radio transmitter and a 6 axis gyroscopic system that's designed to aid in stable flight and mid-air corrections. I like the fact that the radio controller also includes an LCD screen with extra information regarding the drone's progress, such as what the cameras are up to, the amount of power you're sending to the props, and so on. It's a 2.4 GHZ radio, which is pretty typical for pretty much all RC helis and quads these days. The radio also lets you switch back and forth between beginner and advanced modes, or Mode 1 and Mode 2, respectively. The second mode is for people who enjoy pulling aerial stunts with drones, while the first is for people who are giving in to the 20th request by their children to have a turn (don't ask me how I know this). The second mode is also better for outdoors, since you can fly faster with it.

The real element that sets the UDI U818A Quadcopter aside from other drones is that it is the cheapest drone that lets you take pictures and video, thanks to a video camera attached at the base of the drone. The camera is no GoPro; let's make that clear from the start. It's also nothing like the high-definition cameras included on the Phantom 2 Vision+, Vision, or even the FC40, but if you simply want proof that you were flying over that high speed chase when it took place on Main Street, this is as good a way as any to make that happen. To pull the video from the camera, you simply connect a USB cable from the drone's camera to your laptop or desktop.

When I picked up my UDI U818A Quadcopter from Amazon (well, I technically didn't pick it up from Amazon; I picked it up from my mail carrier, but you get the idea), I was looking forward to seeing what was included in the box, as I've had a variety of not-so-good experiences from budget drone manufacturers. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was the UDI U818A Quadcopter itself present and in undamaged condition, so was the radio transmitter and the 500 mAH LiPo battery that powers it. Keep in mind that you'll still need 3 AAA batteries to fly, as those are what power the radio, and they don't come in the package. You can't have everything. However, you do get some extra parts too, which is great, since beginners are almost certainly going to have a few crashes while earning their flight wings.

What's It Like to Use It?
This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. Flying the UDI U818A Quadcopter is a fun experience; that part is pretty much consistent among most drones, and the UDI quadricopter is no exception. I'm used to flying Phantom drones, but even though the experience is a different one, it's not a bad one to take the UDI U818A Quadcopter to the sky. You do have to keep in mind that the battery life is only around 10 minutes, and that's if you're not whizzing around doing tricks left and right. However, speaking of tricks, here's what you can do with the drone with a bit of practice:

You can fly forward and backward, up and down, and left and right, of course. I mention this not because it's novel, but because I've flown some drones that didn't let you do these things because of how poorly balanced they were. Most of these ended up in my neighbor's yard, which is part of why my neighbor has a very tall fence. But beyond basic flight stuff, you can also hover and do a number of 360 degree flips while in the advanced mode. And yes, photo and video is possible.

Overall, it's a fun little quadcopter that can be flown both indoors and outdoors and figured out in a rather short amount of time. It's not going to break speed or altitude records, but you can definitely have several fun afternoons with it, or hook up additional LEDs to the underbody and do some nighttime flying, although this will cut into your battery life somewhat.

My least favorite part of the UDI U818A Quadcopter is the battery life. The batteries simply take too long to charge (around 2 hours each time), and your flight time is only 10 minutes or so if you fly carefully. I ended up buying about 6 extra so I could swap them in as needed. I also wish you had a longer range available than 100 feet, or 30 meters, because I enjoy flying higher and farther than that, and you'd be surprised how short 100 feet is. And finally, while it's a decent-sized drone, it's also a light one, so you'll want to avoid flying in high winds.

Should I Buy It?

In short, yes. The fact that you can get a functional drone that's reasonably sturdy, looks professional, or at least discreet, and is capable of shooting rudimentary video for under $100 is enough for me to keep this drone in my garage alongside much more expensive machines.

I completely recommend the UDI U818A Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon in black here or buy it in white here. Extra batteries are available here. I recommend picking up at least 3 to have a decent flying experience.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 Blade 350 QX RTF with SAFE Quadcopter Review: Better than a DJI Phantom?

Blade 350 QX RTF - What's The Big Deal?

I enjoy reviewing quadrocopters that prove worthy challengers to the DJI Phantom line. I've got a Phantom 2 Vision+ and fly it on a daily basis, but they're not cheap, and since I've got a garage full of drones, I like them to come in a variety of prices. This also keeps my wife from leaving me! Last year, Blade came out with the 350 QX RTF, which is already promising to be a worthy alternative to my Phantoms. Is it even better than a Phantom? Read on to find out! I'm off to the garage to get my 350 QX and log some hours in the sky.

Structure, Design, and Guts

Blade typically sells their quadcopters as RTF, or bind-n-fly, and RTF, or ready-to-fly kits. I'm hardcore so I roll with the BNF kits, but the day I wanted to buy one, Amazon was sold out, so I went with the RTF kit. There really isn't a difference when the drone is in the air, and the RTF kit makes you a lot less likely to break something, so that's what I'd recommend to most pilots. The main advantage of the BNF option is if you've got your own radio that you'd like to pair to the quadcopter.

If you get the RTF kit, you get a Spektrum DX5e radio with 4 AA batteries, a 2200mAH LiPo battery, a balancing charger, spare props (and yes, you'll go through spare propellers with this drone), Allen keys, instructions to get you in the air, and a mounting plate so you can buy and attach your very own GoPro camera to take some awesome drone video and photography. In other words, this is pretty much like a Phantom or Phantom 2, in terms of the connectability to a GoPro, except it's cheaper. If you get the BNF kit, you need your own radio, such as the Spektrum DX6i, or a different radio that's got at least 5 channels and is either DSM2 or DSMX-compatible. Your flight time in either case will between 10 and 15 minutes.

The manual, unfortunately, isn't as helpful as it should be, which is why I went for the full manual available from Blade here. Besides that, though, the setup is about as straightforward as it gets: get drone out of box, charge drone battery with 3 amp included charger, attach GoPro, and watch out world, because another drone just took off in your neighborhood!

What's It Like to Use It?

This is the part of drone reviews I enjoy writing the most. There is something the Blade 350 QX RTF does better than any other drone I've used, and that's flying at night. Night flying with a drone is one of those things that my buddies and I used to do with LEDs strapped to our helicopters , and it didn't always turn out the way we wanted it to. Let's just say there were a lot of crashes and startled neighbors and UFO sightings. Has anything changed?

Yes! It's just as fun to go night flying with a quadcopter like the Blade 350 QX RTF as it was with my old R/C helicopters, but it's a lot safer and more predictable now, which I like as an advocate of best practices with quadrotors. But before I get ahead of myself, here are some of my favorite features of the Blade 350 QX RTF.

First of all, the Smart Mode is awesome. It features SAFE, which stands for sensor assisted flight envelope, and it basically means you're flying with an extra, more experienced pilot who keeps you from getting too crazy behind the radio. When it's enabled, your Blade 350 QX RTF will not be able to tilt beyond around 15 degrees. In other words, pitch and roll will be limited, which makes it impossible to lose control of your Blade 350 QX RTF while flying it, even if you make mistakes on the radio. Similarly, once you move your elevator stick to the center position, SAFE will bring your drone into a hover. Thanks to the GPS and altimeter built in, not only will you hover at the same altitude, you'll hover in the same location.

Smart mode is good enough for you to drop your radio and just start taking pictures of your Blade 350 QX RTF in the air if you want. It's awesome. And speaking of awesome, how about the GPS paired with the fly home function? I've lost track of the number of times I've sent the Blade 350 QX RTF far, far away, to the point where I couldn't even see it anymore, both during the day and in the middle of the night, only to have the drone return to me with the flick of a switch. It takes longer if the drone is farther away from you, of course, but it's a feature I never get tired of watching; in most cases, the Blade 350 QX RTF lands within 6 feet of the original take off location, and yes, the landing is perfect.

There are so many other features present in the Blade 350 QX RTF that I could spend all day and night writing about them, but I'll just skip to the nighttime mode. You've got LEDs on each motor nacelle that help you figure out where the drone is oriented, and the lights shine, shine, shine at night, making it a dead easy affair to keep track of the drone at night. And night flying is, frankly, addicting. Thanks to SAFE mode, you can give the Blade 350 QX RTF to your mother-in-law at night and have her fly as well as a pro. I'm serious, as we tried it the other day, since she was curious about what that strange flying set of Christmas lights were. It really looks like a UFO, and if you were the kind of person who enjoyed making fake UFO sightings up, you could have a ball with this drone. I'm not encouraging it at all, but the thought did cross my mind once or twice.

Of course, no drone is perfect, and this is no exception. Battery life isn't as long as that in a Phantom, although it's still more than enough to get a fun flight in. Similarly, I wish you could adjust your camera angles while in flight, but at the same time, without a 3 axis gimbal such as that found on the Phantom 2 Vision+, that just isn't possible. The main annoyance with the Blade 350 QX RTF is the fact that the propellers aren't as reliable as they should be.

There was apparently an error for the first batch of props due to excessive failures, according to a friend of mine who only flies Blade. Mine never failed, but I only flew as high and far as I did because I knew I could afford to replace the drone if anything went wrong. If you're really worried about it, you might want to consider upgrading the props to APC's quad props. You'll need an adapter kit to do that.

That said, it's unlikely to happen to you, and if it does, Blade is very responsive to help out if the failure leads to drone damage, from what I've heard. And as I said, I was too busy flying to worry about it.

Should I Buy It?

If it were up to me, I'd vote yes! It's one of the best deals out there right now, and definitely a drone that can hold its own against the DJI Phantom line if you're looking for something different. For a pretty cheap price, you get a quadcopter that's programmed, built and ready to fly, along with a GPS, SAFE setup, stabilization, and a fly home feature setup, all with the capability to tote a GoPro camera along to take pretty awesome shots. The setup is about as simple as it gets: you open up the box, you charge your battery, you add your camera, and you start flying and shooting. It's that easy.

I completely recommend the Blade 350 QX  RTF. You can buy it from Amazon here. You can buy it in BNF form here. If you buy it in BNF form, you can pair it with this transmitter. Extra regular batteries are available here, but I'd spend a bit more for the higher capacity battery here. You can pick up a GoPro here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 Parrot AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition Quadricopter Review: Best Phantom Alternative Quadrotor?

Parrot AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition - What's The Big Deal?

I've had the Parrot AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition for more than a year now, and despite having purchased several other drones since then (Phantom 2 Vision+, you're my favorite), something keeps bringing me back to to this fun little quadcopter. The experience of flying one is similar, yet strikingly different from that of piloting a DJI drone, and I'm going to put away my Phantoms for a few minutes to tinker with the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition and share what makes it a pretty awesome drone to have in your flight hangar. For example, when's the last time you got 35 minutes of flight time out of a single set of batteries on a drone?

Structure, Design, and Guts

The AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition makes me smile as soon as I unpack it. Why? Because Parrot took my advice years ago when I suggested multiple batteries in a kit would encourage people to fly more, which would encourage them to fly more. I'm still waiting for DJI to acknowledge this, but in the mean time, we can be happy that Parrot ships two batteries with the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition, which means that you can fly for up to 70 minutes, as long as you remember to land halfway through to swap batteries. Each battery lasts up to 35 minutes, and a pocket-sized wall charger is included.

Looking at the body of the drone itself, it's clear that Parrot designed the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition to be used in a variety of conditions, or at least both indoors and outdoors. They include two hulls or fuselages for the drone, with one optimized for indoor use, and the other for use in the wide open spaces of the great outdoors. I'll admit that I use the indoor hull outside as well, as it simply looks cooler than the outdoor one. However, the point of the indoor hull is to keep your various accouterments from being smashed up by the rotors. I don't have anything fancy enough to be wrecked by drone blades, but my wife loves her curtains and standing mixer, and there's no way I'm going to risk damaging either, so on goes the indoor hull when whizzing around the house.

Another reason to use the indoor hull when flying outdoors is because it keeps  others safe from the rotors, which can do serious damage if they contact a person just about anywhere. The rotors themselves come in three different colors, which is an easy way to personalize your drone.

What's It Like to Use It?

This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. Using the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition is simply a fun experience. The drone flies quickly and is highly responsive to the control system. Speaking of the control system, the primary method suggested by Parrot is a smartphone or tablet, which isn't my preferred method, since I was raised with a radio transmitter in my hands. However, it does work, and you get used to it pretty quickly.

There are two cameras connected to the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition; one is mounted toward the front, which streams via a Parrot app to your smartphone. The app for flight control is available in both iOS and Android, which is nice. The front camera gives a decent quality (720p), and is definitely usable as a way of steering the drone, but you don't get too much detail with it.

To fly the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition, by default, your phone controls it via tilt. In other words, you hold your phone the way you would a joystick, and off you go. This was my lesser favored method, as Parrot also lets you set up a pair of joypads on the screen, and use the left thumb to control your direction while your right controls height. In other words, the left thumb decides whether you're heading forward, backwards, left or right, while the right will help you move up and down and will determine where the front of the drone is pointing. This method makes much more sense, and I quickly grew to prefer it to the other.

The second camera I mentioned points downward, as it is mounted beneath the drone. I only found it useful when trying to land on particular things, such as the top of my wife's head while she slept (just kidding!). You can also use the front camera to take pictures at 1280x720 resolution. For recording, you can stream video to your piloting device and record it from there, or there is a USB socket on the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition that you can stick a memory stick in and use for recording. I preferred this mode, as I found I could get more than an hour's worth of video out of a 2 GB stick, and since a single battery doesn't last that long, it's more than enough between flights.

I'm a fan of the app included for a few more reasons, including the effortless relay of the video from the front camera to my smartphone. There's next to no lag, and I love it. I also like how if I drop the phone by accident, the drone simply stops and hovers wherever it may be until I pick up the controls again. This is a great "panic" feature. Similarly, there's even a "land" button that you can press to take the guesswork out of executing a landing. Crazy, right?

Should I Buy It?

In short: I would, yes. It's not a Phantom, but it doesn't need to be. It's a fun drone that offers a different flight quality from that of the Phantoms; it feels more organic and less mechanical, somewhat like making rice from a pot instead of with a rice cooker. Yes, I'm somewhat addicted to rice. The main downsides to the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition are the video, which isn't nearly as clear or stabilized as other options out there, as well as the lack of physical controls for the drone. But if those features don't matter for you, I can't think of a better drone for beginners or intermediate pilots.

I completely recommend the AR. Drone 2.0 Power Edition. You can buy it from Amazon here. Extra regular batteries are here, but I'd spend a bit more for the enhanced batteries here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadcopter Review: Is it Still Worth It?

DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadcopter - What's The Big Deal?

Last year, DJI made me happier than a pig in a mudbath when they released the Phantom 2 after the original Phantom. I bought it, of course, and loved it. However, I wasn't a fan of how I continued to have to strap a GoPro to it in order to get good footage of the car chases on the bad side of town. Thankfully, DJI paid attention to my emails and rolled out the Phantom 2 Vision, which sent me back to my wife desperately trying to explain why I had to have one more drone. She eventually agreed, proving once again why I have the best wife in the world, and that allowed me to write the notes that led to this long-delayed review. I've got my Phantom 2 Vision in front of me (well, next to my computer) as I write this review, and I'm already itching to get out and take to the skies again with it.

What Is It and Why Do I Want It?

The Phantom 2 Vision is the successor to the Phantom 2, which itself is the successor to the Phantom FC40, which itself is the successor to the original Phantom that started it all. And all of these are four of the best thought out UAVs, drones, quadcopters, or whatever you'd like to call them currently available on the market.

You want it because it's fun! Let's be honest; that's why I buy any of these things. In particular, you want it because it fixes a lot of issues I and others had with the Phantom 2, Phantom FC40, and original Phantom, and does so marvelously. It's not as good as the Phantom 2 Vision+ when you push it to the limit, but it's also not as expensive, so let's break it apart and put it back together again for this review!

Structure, Design, and Guts

The Phantom 2 Vision is similar to the base Phantom in that it has the onboard GPS that lets you hover the drone in one spot in the air, as well as fly back home if the radio controller goes out of range or if the batteries in the radio controller die a premature death. However, that's not why you're going to spend more on the Phantom 2 Vision, is it? It's certainly not why I did!

The reason to spend more is because the Phantom 2 Vision includes a High-Definition video camera with a Wi-Fi connection. The original Phantom, of course, was created with the GoPro in mind, but you still needed to buy your own camera if you wanted any photo or video capabilities. That's changed with the Phantom 2 Vision.

If you've got a smart phone like an iPhone or anything Android, all you need to do is download DJI's free Vision app. It then syncs with the Vision so you can download live footage, video or photo, from your drone's camera while you're in the air, and even control the camera physically as well as electronically, in terms of moving the camera itself, starting and stopping it, taking pictures, and even obtaining a first person view as you're flying. You even get to check out various bits of nifty flight data, such as your location, altitude, speed, and battery life. Which reminds me...

DJI finally listened to me and added a larger battery to the Phantom 2 Vision. It's a 5200mAh battery, which is enough energy to power a pretty cool laptop for 4 hours. Unfortunately, it only powers the Phantom 2 Vision for 25 minutes, but you can squeeze a lot of fun into 25 minutes. The battery also has a slot that makes it easier to slide in and out, which is much nicer than the need to plug in wires and practically build the battery yourself, as is the case with the original Phantom that only gave you 10 or 15 minutes for all of your work and acid burns.

What's It Like to Use It?

This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. The Phantom 2 Vision is fun, fun, fun to fly. Using it still starts with the creepy calibration ritual that has you spinning around and looking silly with the drone in a circle. However, things start getting better from here. For example, the Morse Codish blinking LED light pattern has now been simplified from the way it was in the Phantom, and DJI even provides you with a pattern code card along with the radio controller, which makes all the difference in figuring out what the Phantom 2 Vision is trying to tell you when you're trying to figure out if you'll be able to take off in a minute or not.

One of the first things I noticed when flying the Phantom 2 Vision was that it was simply easier to fly than the Phantom. Contacting DJI, I learned that they'd definitely tweaked the Naza-M, which controls the Phantom 2 Vision. Works for me!

I enjoy the first-person-view immensely, which I had access to thanks to the app. I found it most useful when flying the Phantom 2 Vision far, far away over fields several acres in size. You quickly realize that the drone looks very small when you're hundreds of feet away from it, and once you can't figure out which way it's facing, you either have to start steering it left and right in order to tell which way it's facing, or you use your technology and look at the camera until you see where you want to go. However, I don't recommend leaning too hard on this method, as it's easy to lose your video signal, which is carried on the Wi-Fi and has a range under ideal conditions of 984 feet, or 300 meters. That range can and will decrease if you have objects in the way.

As I noted earlier, the app for the Phantom 2 Vision also lets you track flight data, which comes in handy when you want to figure out the direction of the drone and its distance from you. However, I tended to ignore that information as it was hard to make out in bright sunlight when flying. And keep in mind that you could already use the original Phantom to fly FPV, as long as your GoPro had Wi-Fi attached to it. It was just slower.

The camera is easily the most impressive part of the Phantom 2 Vision. I'd estimate it's as good as those in the newest GoPro systems. You get 140 degrees of coverage and can shoot video in up to 1080p, whether at 30fps or 60i. You can, of course, shoot video in lower resolutions to save space. The camera is also capable of shooting 14 MP images. There's definitely a fisheye effect with the camera, but it's great for getting coverage of a lot of things at once, so I'm a fan of it.

I love being able to steer the camera up and down; this is a feature that's not in the original Phantom, Phantom FC40, or Phantom 2. It really makes a difference in that "eye in the sky" feeling that's at the root of so many people's desires to fly personal drones these days. However, I'm not a fan of the Jell-O effect that comes with using the camera. There's an anti-vibration mount built into the system, but it doesn't work as well as it should in every situation, and I'm one of those guys who likes things to work well everywhere, every time, even though that's not the way the real world works. The Phantom 2 Vision+ takes care of this issue, but to be honest, you might not even see it as an issue.

Keep in mind that the gimbal in the Phantom 2 Vision is a single-axis gimbal, which is a fancy way of saying that you can simply move the camera up and down from the ground. If you want to be able to steer it in multiple axes, you'll need the Phantom 2 Vision+. Ditto if you want to be able to point the camera straight down to see what's directly under the drone.

Is It Still Worth It?

In short: I think so, yes. It's an amazingly fun piece of gear, and one of the best drones I've had the pleasure of using. The only way I could see it improved would be through the addition of a better method of stabilizing the video (i.e., a gimbal), which, interestingly, is precisely what DJI did with the Phantom 2 Vision+. However, you don't need to upgrade to the Vision+ if you're happy with the video you get from the Phantom 2 Vision; I'm just a gear junkie and had to see if the difference was worth it. To me, it was, but one of my drone buddies who has the Phantom 2 Vision thinks I'm crazy, and he stuck with his. We're both right, aren't we?

I completely recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon here. Extra batteries are here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 DJI Phantom Quadcopter: A Great Drone for Beginners? Yes!

DJI Phantom Quadcopter - What's The Big Deal?

I've used drones for years, and have far too many of them in my flight hangar, which my wife dryly calls our "garage." Throughout those years, I had a lot of fun, but I never knew how much fun was possible until I picked up DJI's Phantom Quadcopter last year. I'm just getting around to reviewing it, and even though it's no longer the drone I take out when I feel like seeing what's going on around the neighborhood anymore, it's definitely still one of the best drones in my hangar. Here are my thoughts on why it should be in yours too.

What Is It and Why Do I Want It?

The Phantom is basically a helicopter with four rotors (known as a quadcopter). However, it's not just a quadcopter; it's a quadcopter that you get to control via radio, or remote control, and that's capable of shooting some pretty awesome video and still footage.

You want it because it's fun! Let's be honest; that's why I buy any of these things. In particular, you want it because it's a cheaper version of the Phantom 2 drones that gets you flying for a much smaller hit in your wallet. If you're a beginner to drones and you don't need video, or you're willing to buy a GoPro on your own time to hook up, the Phantom might be the only drone you ever need. And believe me, when it's in the air, it's no less fun than the most expensive drones out there. Trust me; I've flown close to a hundred of them at this point.

Structure, Design, and Guts

The Phantom does take a few minutes to put together out of the box. DJI has free instructional videos that are designed to get you in the air pretty quickly, and you can even download a Quick Start Manual to look things over on paper. These, by the way, are handy if you've never flown a quadcopter or multirotor before.

A big selling point for the Phantom is that you can use it to turn the GoPro series of cameras into flying aerial platforms, and the Phantom includes a mount underneath it that is adjustable and specifically designed to fit the GoPro. The only issue with this, though, is that you will need to strip the protective housing of the GoPro in order to make it fit the mount. Fortunately DJI did away with this sillyness with the Phantom 2 Vision series, which include built in cameras that are well protected. But the way things are in the Phantom, you also can't make use of the extra modules that are available for the GoPro, such as an additional battery. That said, the setup of the drone is simple and it doesn't take any work to connect a GoPro to it.

Keep in mind that when you mount your GoPro to the Phantom, it will be mounted upside down, which means that you'll either need to turn on the video flip setting in the camera itself or remember to rotate the footage on your own when you are editing it. Otherwise you're going to look silly showing your aerial coverage of your kid's soccer game to all your friends while the field is upside down.

A rechargeable 2200mAh battery is included for the drone, but given that the battery life is somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, you'll want to buy extras. When you turn it on, the Phantom will go into self-check mode, which is admittedly confusing if you aren't familiar with the exotic Morse code system of blinking LED madness. Essentially, the LED indicator will flash in a variety of color patterns. The patterns are designed to let you know that the check itself is occurring, and then to keep you in the know if it has other issues.

What kinds of issues? Maybe the compass isn't being calibrated (this gets the drone lost). Maybe GPS satellites aren't showing up (this keeps the drone from coming back to you). Maybe it's cold (which means you can't fly). The issue here is that you aren't going to know what these codes mean unless you have a way of cross-referencing them, or unless you've seen them often enough to have them memorized. This is one of those issues DJI would do well to fix, perhaps with a simple text display.

What's It Like to Use It?

This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. In short, using the Phantom is a dreamy experience. I've felt this way with every Phantom from the original one up to the Phantom 2 Video+, which is my go-to drone, and they all give the same thrill each time the rotors start whirring and the drone whizzes into the sky like a four-headed seagull.

The top speed of the Phantom is approximately 22mph, as measured by my radar gun. I'm not sure how high it can go, but based on comparisons with nearby objects, I'd estimate somewhere past 500 feet easily. It's also very responsive; there's no lag when steering it in one direction or another.

The battery life as I time it is typically 12 minutes, which is right in the 10 to 15 minute range estimated by DJI. I would like more battery life, but I know that to get that, I need to whip out my Phantom 2 Video+ quadcopter instead, and I frequently do. When I'm in the mood to use the Phantom by itself, I just make sure to pack a few extra batteries.

There are a lot of neat things to talk about with the Phantom, being the game-changer that it is for the amateur and professional drone market, so let's start with the GPS Attitude mode. This is a setting that you can turn on that essentially lets your Phantom hover in mid-air; it orients the Phantom and tweaks the motors to keep it in one position even if the wind is pushing it this way and that. Similarly, it's also a way to keep the Phantom from moving it forward when you're trying to stop it; take your fingers off the throttle, and the Phantom stays right where you left it, at least until the batteries run out.

Another feature I'm a fan of is the Enhanced Fail-Safe. This is a fancy way of saying that if and when the Phantom loses communication with the radio controller, the Phantom is designed to fly back to where it took off. This works if the radio controller's batteries randomly die. It also works if you fly out of range, which is capped at 984 feet. Pretty awesome, right?

Finally, a good feature for beginners is the Intelligent Orientation Control. It's basically a way to compensate for the need to mirror your controls when the Phantom is flying toward you compared to when it's flying away from you. When it's enabled, executing a right turn on the controller means that the Phantom will always turn to your right, regardless of whether it's facing you or not. It's a crutch that can make the Phantom easier to handle at first, but I recommend getting away from it as quickly as possible or skipping it entirely, as it's only going to confuse you more when you switch back or fly a drone that doesn't include this feature.

I'd call the video setup the weak point of the Phantom. Yes, you can attach a GoPro rather easily, but the video tends to jiggle a bit (it's called the Jell-O effect) due to vibrations from the props and motors. It's not something you'll notice if you're watching for fun or if you're recording video where having coverage is more important than the quality of said video, but if you're doing pro work, you're not going to want to deal with such issues. Of course, if you're doing pro work, then you should skip the Phantom entirely and look toward the Phantom 2 Video+, which is what I use whenever working on a serious project.

Should I Buy It?

In short: I would, yes. It's the kind of quadcopter every beginner should have in his or her hangar. Features like a rock solid construction, the assembly is straightforward and only takes a few minutes, and for far less than a grand, you get physical joysticks, GPS-assisted hovering, orientation control, a good amount of speed and range, and the ability to hook up a cheap camera to shoot high-definition video with. For many enthusiasts, this might be the only drone they ever need. I'm a fan of the Phantom FC40 Quadcopter if you'd like an integrated camera but don't need all of the technical advantages of the Phantom 2 Video+. Any of these quads will help you forget about your troubles while you pilot them, and can be the start of a wonderfully thrilling and lifelong hobby--or occupation!

I completely recommend the DJI Phantom Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon here. You can pick up a great GoPro that mates perfectly with the Phantom here. Extra regular batteries are here, but I'd spend a bit more for the enhanced batteries here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 DJI Phantom FC40 Quadcopter Review: Best Drone for Beginners? Yes!

DJI Phantom FC40 Quadcopter - What's The Big Deal?

Last year was a great one for DJI, in terms of their development in the world of quadcopters. They released the Phantom 1, which gave me the most fun of any quadcopter up to that point, and I remember telling my wife when it came out that it would lead to a new generation of amateur and pro drone enthusiasts. She laughed at me, but the ever-increasing fleet of Phantoms shows I might have the last laugh!

Anyway, last fall, DJI also knocked it out of the park with the Phantom 2 Vision, and yes, I picked that up too (thank you Amazon!). The only issue is that the Phantom 2 Vision wasn't exactly cheap. I wrote DJI about it, and they must have listened, because shortly afterward, they came out with the Phantom FC40, which is what this review is about. The Phantom FC40 is designed to make it easier for you to shoot high-def video without needing to take out a second mortgage. I've got it in front of me alongside the Phantom 2 Vision and Phantom 2+ Vision, so I'm going to write this review before getting out to do some flying later.

What Is It and Why Do I Want It?

The Phantom FC40 is essentially a helicopter with four rotors (known as a quadcopter). However, it's not just a quadcopter; it's a quadcopter that you get to control via radio, or remote control, and that's capable of shooting some pretty awesome video and still footage.

You want it because it's fun! Let's be honest; that's why I buy any of these things. In particular, you want it because it's a cheaper alternative to the Phantom 2 and Phantom 2+ that does pretty much the same thing unless you're looking for really high quality video and a few additional features. If you're a beginner, I think this is the single best drone on the market right now.


Structure, Design, and Guts

The Phantom FC40 arrives in a clean white labeled box. Inside, you'll see the drone neatly packed with the blades unattached to keep them from taking up too much space. Also packaged are the remote control, two propeller sets, a battery, accessories for charging, stickers, and a camera with the hardware necessary to mount it. You'll be responsible for putting the legs on yourself, in addition to the propellers and the housing for the camera. However, my kids were able to do it while watching Frozen, so I think most folks will be able to figure it out.

DJI has a history of making great quadcopters that actually make sense when you try them, fly them, and use them, and that's why they've always been among my favorite RTF (ready-to-fly) drones. The Phantom FC40 is no exception here. If you've already seen or tried the original Phantom, you'll have a head start, as there are few external differences between the two. There's the familiar plastic composite material that reminds you of a tiny Japanese toilet, but as with the original Phantom, it's sturdy, durable, and unlikely to crack on you unless you do something like crash head on into a tree. I'll admit that even with decades of flying experience, I still crash land now and then, and I can verify that the Phantom FC40 is strong enough to take a few hard landings with nothing worse than a few broken blades. Blades you can replace!

The frame itself is sleek, ergonomic, and well-designed with thoughtful touches. For example, you have screw inserts inside the frame to keep the legs from vibrating out when you're in the air. The body itself also has a set of LEDs that give you information on your current flight status. The colors will change depending on whether it's got a GPS satellite signal, whether it's ready to fly, whether you're in an automated or manual mode, if there are errors that will need to be dealt with before you take off, and so on.

It's a drone that does a lot of the thinking for you, and I like that.

What's It Like to Use It?

This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. In short, using the Phantom FC40 is great. My favorite way to describe it is as 90% of the Phantom 2 Vision+ experience for only 50% of the cost. Is it fast? Oh yes, it's amazingly fast. It makes sense, because the basic structure comes from the Phantom. That means that you can fly hundreds of feet in the air, take off and land and pop back in the air again, and just have a great time experiencing the thrill of flight. I'd estimate the top speed is around 22 mph, based on my radar gun (yes, it really works).

The camera is what sets the Phantom FC40 apart from the original Phantom. It's a 720p/30 fps camera, which means you get high-definition, although not as high in definition as that in the Phantom 2 Vision or Phantom 2 Vision+. It's also not as high-def as what you'd get if you just strapped a GoPro to it, but it's definitely high quality enough to shoot a movie with, or to share content to YouTube with, or simply to enjoy on your computer or high-definition TV at home. And I'll be honest with you. When I've got my big fancy TV set up (thank you wife!) in the middle of my living room and am watching footage from my latest buzz over the neighborhood, the last thing I'm thinking is, "gee, this would look so much better at 1080p!" In the real world, it's the content that matters, and the Phantom FC40 delivers.

Now, that's not to say that there aren't any downsides, because there always are. For example, I like that you can control the camera through your smart phone, in terms of starting and stopping it and shooting video and audio. I also love that you can look at first-person footage as you're flying directly from the Phantom FC40. Real-time video while you're flying around town or watching traffic patterns will make you feel like you're using that big spy setup they had at the end of The Dark Knight. You can even go farther and record your footage via an SD card. However, and this is where the downside is: you can't change the angle of the camera. You don't have a gimbal. In other words, you need to set the angle manually on the ground before you take off, and that's the angle you'll get until you land again. In contrast, you get to change that on the fly (ha ha) with the Vision, which is worth every penny if you're into serious drone surveillance or video capture. This, right here, is why I use the Phantom 2 Vision+ over the Phantom FC40.

However, if that's not a feature you need, then it's not a problem! Then again, something else you might not like is the fact that the battery life is only 10 to 15 minutes long, compared to around 25 minutes in the Phantom 2 Vision and Phantom 2 Vision+. That said, you can always buy extra enhanced batteries and just pop them in whenever you land, which is what I did until I upgraded the entire quadcopter. I wouldn't let this discourage you, as you'd be surprised just how much fun you can squeeze into a 15 minute flight.

Should I Buy It?

In short: I would, yes. It's an amazingly fun piece of gear, and one of the best drones I've had the pleasure of buying. There are some features that set it apart from its higher end cousins, such as the lack of directional video control and the lower quality camera setup. However, if you can live without those features and are on a budget, I'd save my money and go with the Phantom FC40. I think it's the best drone out there for beginners and casual enthusiasts right now.

I completely recommend the DJI Phantom FC40 Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon here. Also consider the same kit along with an extra battery, propellers, anti-vibration mount, and cleaning materials here. Extra regular batteries are here, but I'd spend a bit more for the enhanced batteries here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

2014 DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter Review: Is It Worth It?

DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter - What's The Big Deal?

The DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter isn't the first remote-control quadcopter DJI has made; they've been in the game for years. I remember back when I needed to Macgeyver a GoPro underneath it to see what my neighbors were up to, Rear Window style, but those days ended last year when DJI brought the Phantom 2 Vision to the market with its very own camera system. I was a fan of it, don't get me wrong. However, it wasn't ready for prime time; just turning it made me sick enough to want to fly the Phantom into the nearest above ground swimming pool.

Those days are over! DJI has brought the Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter to the market. As the name implies, you not only get a camera included, but an awesome gimbal that includes electronic stabilization along all 3 axes. Does this make the Phantom 2 fun to fly again? Let's just say I'm back up to speed with what everyone's up to again up and down my street!

What Is It?

The Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter is basically a helicopter. A small helicopter that you get to control via radio, or remote control, and that's chock full of technology the Soviets would have tortured Iron Man to get ahold of. It includes a GPS (yes, really), Wi-Fi, and the most fun part? A 14MP camera capable of shooting 1080p/30 fps high-definition video with a lens as fast as F/2.8. In other words, it's James Bond-type stuff we're talking about here.

Why Do I Want It?

You want it because it's fun! Let's be honest; that's why I buy any of these things. You get a helicopter that you can zoom about over your neighbors and neighborhood at speeds of up to 35 mph and heights of up to 900 feet or more, all paired with a nifty camera that shoots video clearer than Princess Anna's skin in Frozen.

Did I mention Frozen? Yeah, I'm a dad, I love it, and you should really watch it if you haven't. But anyway, with the Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter, you can take some awesome shots, whether for photo or video work, that simply wouldn't be possible with any other piece of gear. I'm serious; I know folks in the movie industry (thank you, previous career) that use the Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter to get some of those crazy shots you're starting to see in the latest action movies. That's a story for another day, though. Let's get down to business...what's this thing about on the inside?

Structure, Design, and Guts

I opened mine up and barely managed to put it back together, so don't do what I did there. However, it's tempting to. On the outside, you could mistake it for a toy you'd buy for a kid. It's all plastic, all white, and reminds me of some kind of toilet torture device. When you look at it top down, it looks funky and geometric. It has two square legs that help it land and also keep the camera from being bumped during normal landings.

The camera itself looks all kinds of fancy. It hangs like a pendulum and includes vibration dampers to keep the video from shaking when the motors are whirring. The Phantom 2 Vision+ shows DJI learned from the Phantom 2, as they split the camera's functional bits into several parts. The pendulum bit is where the camera's computery parts, micro USB plug, micro SD card slot, and so on are located, but then they run a cable from there to the actual sensor and lens of the camera. Keeping things separated like this makes it easier to poke around in one part of the kit without disturbing everything else. I like it.

This split design makes even more sense when you think about the stabilization. Since the camera is split, the only parts of it that need stabilization are the sensor and lens, while the other non-essential bits can vibrate away. As a result, you've got your gimbal, or little mechanical robo-arm and the camera attached to the end of it. The gimbal is what leads to the 3-axis stabilization that's quite frankly, scary fast. I love it.

A 5200mah Li-Po battery gives the Phantom 2 Vision+ some serious get up and go, and you can swap it out for spares pretty easily. I recommend buying several of them. Your remote is white and curvy and has a pair of joysticks, a power switch, and a pair of 3-position switches. There is a phone clamp on the upper left corner and a range extender (Wi-Fi, of course) on the right. This means that you can literally setup a Wi-Fi network in your immediate area to work with your iOS or Android phone, and thanks to the rechargeable battery included inside the range extender, you can stay in contact with the Phantom from even 2,200 feet. That's nuts. If you use the app provided by DJI, you get all kinds of nifty features, including flight data such as your battery level, your speed, altitude, and distance from home base, a camera's eye view, shoot video, stop video, swivel the camera, and of course, take still video.

What's It Like to Use It?

This is my favorite part of any review, and let's be honest: it's why you've read this far. The Phantom 2 Vision+ is a joy to fly. It moves quickly, responsively, very high, and did I mention it's fast? It's fast! It might look like a toy with the toilet bowl white theme, but make sure you take it seriously, because it's easy to hurt someone with a drone like this if you don't know what you're doing. Fly well, and fly safe.

Keep in mind that you need to do a bit more than just hit the power switch and take to the skies. The instructions aren't very helpful either, although to be honest, I've never seen a drone with a good manual when it came to flying. But here are some of the things you'll need to do ahead of time: turn the Phantom 2 Vision+ on, turn on the remote, set up the Wi-Fi repeater, connect your phone to it (and wait the time necessary for the connection to work), and get the app going. From there, you keep turning the right switch until you get your yellow almost-there lights, and then start calibrating your compasses by lifting and rotating the Phantom 2 Vision+. If you're lucky and followed all of the steps correctly, you'll get your green lights, which will mean you've been cleared for takeoff. It's about as complicated as flying a real helicopter!

Got your joysticks? Good; you'll need them. Push them down and inside (as in, toward the center). Your left stick handles rotation and altitude, while your right handles your roll and pitch. In other words, left stick controls how high and where it's facing, while the right stick gets you there. It's best to just focus on taking off and moving away from you when you're starting off and not even bothering with controlling where it's facing. Why? Because the moment you rotate the Phantom 2 Vision+ toward yourself, you're flying mirror-style, and it's really easy to fly it into your loved ones or neighbors incidentally as you're figuring things out. Don't ask me how I know.

It does take practice to get the hang of it. It's easy to think, hey, I'm in the air, I've got this, and get all Tom Cruisey in Top Gun. But just like that guy in Independence Day (Jimmy?) who flew into an alien and got blown up way too early in the movie, you don't want to push too hard or too fast. 35 mph is serious speed, and y
ou can hurt yourself, other people, or the Phantom 2 Vision+ if you hit anything at that speed.

The neat thing about it, though, is that if you fly too high, Icarus style, and lose control, the Phantom 2 Vision+ helps you out a lot. Remember the built in GPS system? Well, if the Phantom 2 Vision+ senses that it's no longer under human control, it basically phones home and starts flying back toward the last point where it got a radio signal. From there, you can turn the top right switch down and up to recover control. I did this over and over again when showing off...I mean, demonstrating a flight emergency.

There's even a feature that just lets it go back home if it completely loses signal from the remote. This is a great feature if you experience sudden remote battery death. I tested it out from my roof by launching it, pointing it 50 yards east, and then cutting out the remote. The Phantom 2 Vision+ flew back in less than a minute, landed, and had the manners to turn itself off. It was awesome to see. However, I've got a friend who tried the same thing from a boat and never saw his Phantom 2 Vision+ again. Don't let that happen to you.

The camera features make sense, especially with the app. You basically just use arrows to steer the camera, use buttons to take pictures, or to control the video. Unfortunately, the video doesn't work quickly enough for me to trust it when I'm flying, which is a shame. However, it's definitely fast enough to give fluid video while flying. All of your pictures and video go to a teeny micro SD card, so I can also use it with my digital cameras. Score!

When flying, you get around 25 minutes, although it's best to limit flight time to a little less than that (see below). The shots you get are just unbelievable, and it's amazing to think that it wasn't possible to get photography like that as an amateur just a few years ago. The world is changing, folks.

Gimme the Pros

It's an adventure every time it takes off. I've flown drones, helicopters, and airplanes for decades now, and it's not often that I come across a drone that makes me stop and remember what got me into this hobby all over again, but this is one of those kinds of drones. Even my wife enjoys it! It's hard not to fly it without developing a big ol' grin somewhere along the way.

I love the GPS features included in it, and could easily see it saving someone's life someday, especially you rural folks who live far away from the kinds of nosy neighbors I have. I also love the Wi-Fi repeater and how you can even use your phone to tweak the camera. In short, all the technical stuff is great. But the real thrill in the drone is flying it, and it's a fast, high, amazingly quick drone. I need to learn how to upload videos so I can show off the kinds of things we've been able to do with it since buying it. If you're a sports or action sport junkie, or even just like spending time outdoors, this is a drone you can use to shoot some awesome videos. The battery life is decent, and I like that the remote tells me when I need to swap them out instead of making me play a guessing game.

It's put together really well, and it's worth the cost.

Any Cons?

My wife always tells me nothing's perfect, and even though she's usually talking about the way I mow the lawn with our reel mower, she's got a point when it comes to the Phantom 2 Vision+. The setup can be kind of confusing. Similarly, although the drone is designed to just stay hovering whenever you aren't holding the joysticks, this doesn't always happen, and the drone tends to wander off if you aren't careful. Similarly, the camera just isn't fast enough for me to feel comfortable flying it through the video link.

The biggest issue with it, at least from my perspective, is that the battery power isn't directly related to the performance of the drone. To put it another way, it tends to just fall when battery power dips below 10 percent or so. After almost crash-landing on my daughter a few times, my wife made me stop flying whenever the battery level approached 15 percent.

I also don't like how you need to charge the Wi-Fi extender separately from the battery of the drone, which also needs to be charged separately from the radio, which needs 4 AA batteries. We need some consistency here, DJI. And as usual with drone these days, the manuals make more sense in the original Chinese than they do in English.

Despite all that, it's still the best drone I've ever used.

Should I Buy It?

In short: I would, yes. It's an amazingly fun piece of gear, and easily the best drone I've ever bought or made, which is saying something considering how many I've got in the garage (don't tell my wife). It's easily the most straightforward way to take to the skies, get aerial photography and video, and have it with rock solid stability.

I completely recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon here. Also consider the same kit along with an extra battery, case, and SD setup here. Extra batteries are here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.