Syma X8C Venture with 2MP Wide Angle Camera 2.4G 4CH RC Quadcopter - Black

Picked this up to learn drones and see if I was going to enjoy the hobby of it. The instructions could be written better, but over all the product is quite good. I was able to fly it for about 10-20 mins without any kind of modifications. It is very stable for its price and with out all the fancy sensors that some come with. I took it out to a "cul de sac" with asphalt and grass, and I crashed it a few times and flipped it, nothing broke, and it flew perfectly every time after a crash (all crashes were done at low speeds and low altitude). I have never used any kind of RC toy like this in the past. It was very easy to get the hang of, with out the fear or ruining a expensive drone! Its very fun and well worth the price for a beginner, or someone of a higher skill, just looking for something to fly around.This drone is a GREAT entry level drone for someone who wants a medium size drone, but doesnt want to spend a lot or is worried they might not enjoy it and dont want to invest a lot to start. You can modify this and upgrade to brushless motors, reduce the weight, add on different cameras, increase flight time AND range, all with mods. So if you want to learn and modify it from a "DIY" stand point, this is still a great drone to learn with.Over all I am very impressed with this little drone. I feel its well worth the price, even if you do crash it in 3 months or week or w/e. It is easy enough to fix (or seems to be) that it wouldnt matter. Also there are TONS of replacement parts online that you can get for this thing!

I love my drone. I wanted one to practice learning to fly before moving on to the more expensive models for photography one day. This thing will make you learn to fly a drone without breaking the bank. Replacement parts are cheap, which is another reason I bought it. I've flown around an 1.5 hours total time and have gotten much more comfortable and skilled. However, I've broken all the blade guards, and one blade lol. Also the body of the drone has popped apart in areas a couple times which I then have to take a flat head screwdriver to to pop the tabs back into place. Still flying on level 1 speed lol. I have a large field for my back yard but some small trees I've run into. It does come with extra blades but not extra guards.Camera is decent to begin, but yes there is some jello in the video. Good enough to begin with. You can upgrade it to whatever you want...lots of video on YouTube.Instructions were not clear on putting the thing together, but it's not that difficult.THe worst thing about it to me are the lights. During the day, up in the air, they are not easy to see to know which way the head is. This was made easier when I was down to 2 blade guards on the front, and none on the rear lol. I've now changed the back blades to orange, with all new guards. I've even ordered some orange guards and landing gear ($5).Range has not been an issue, as I am a lil fearful of letting it get too far out of my sight anyway. Altitude is very good, not much need to go higher than this thing will. It'll get way above the trees and horizon to see for miles.I would have probably preferred the FPV model, X8W for around the same cost. (I think they went lower after Christmas...ugh). However, I'm not so sure how useful the FPV would be on this drone as, again, I don't think it's one you'd want to fly by watching a cell phone. It's not intelligent like the DJI Phantom is.Not a drone for indoors! I've ordered me a $20 mini Syma to play with and learn more indoors.Remember, this is a great drone, well recommended by pros, for LEARNING to fly on the cheap. The more expensive ones, with all their engineering, are said to be easier to fly, but you need the groundwork to learn to fly them properly first. Plus, you don't want to crash a $500+ drone.I do recommend buying at least one extra battery. Tenergy brand. Find the package of guards, blades, and landing gear for $10. It is a bargain. Got all 3 colors of blades, and black guards and landing gear.You can do a lot of modding on this thing if you look it up on YouTube. My personal goal is moving on to the Phantom so I won't sink too much money into this thing....it's for learning.

For the price you cannot beat this. For those of you who do not like to read here are the key highlights of the review: Good for experienced flyer, HEAVY, Defective Controller out of the box, OK cameraThis drone is huge but with that it has some downfalls, can be hard to control so for that I would recommend at least an intermediate flyer: you should not buy this as a first drone or at least should have a decent hours of flying experience prior to operating. I own this drone along with the X5C, Hubsan x4, and the parrot AR Drone 2.0. Out of all of these I would recommend the less expensive X5C for the beginner level as its controls are super smooth and easy to recover in emergency. Due to the weight of this item in the event of an emergency if you cut the throttle it will be nearly impossible to keep this flying, it will plummet right back down - it may slow down enough to prevent damage but don't expect a flawless recovery from a dead drop. YAW rate is slow so in the event of unexpected wind it may be easy to lose your orientation. The left bumper triggers an advanced mode which gives you more tilt in the event of wind or for faster flying. Also you will have to register with the FAA for this drone as it well exceeds the 250 gram weight limitation. I do not want to give an incorrect assumption for my 3-star review as i love this item! The reasoning behind my review rating is this:The controller came defective out of the box! I could hover it tilt front, back, left and yaw just fine. There was no right tilt: only left tilt. I changed the props, nothing. Then i examined the controller with nothing connected. When i would push the tilt(right) stick to the left the screen indicator moved to the left as it should. When i pushed it right, it moved to the left. After opening the controller and a close examination, I found an unfinished circuit with a minimal amount of solder on it right under the corresponding defective stick. I put some solder in there to complete the circuit and it works like a charm!I am sure this is not a common occurrence but it is definitely notable to give fair warning in case anyone else runs into this issue. The controller will also work with the lower end X5C and I'm assuming vice versa but i did not test the X5C Controller on this drone. While I had the controller open I took the liberty to upgrade the antenna with an old 2.4ghz antenna and the range is phenomenal. I would highly recommend buying additional batteries for this as the charge time is very long. Camera is OK but don't expect 4k quality, other reviewers state that this can carry a gopro camera and i believe it!As with any UAS: fly responsibly and be respectful of the people around you, fly it in an area will it will not incur damage to others personal property or cause injury to someone. If it hits you from a free fall, it will do some damage!