UDI U818A HD 2.4GHz 4 CH 6 Axis Gyro RC Quadcopter 818A with Camera White with 2 Batteries & Parts Set

Do not get lured by its look. This quadcopter may be large and somewhat strong when you do not crash it hardly. It looks stable when flying but in fact you will have hard time controlling it. I used my imagination and cut the protective frame. It flies so well since. But be careful of crashes if you remove them.Pros:1. Goes up easilly 2. Does the rotation axis easilly and 360 3. Looks so niceCons:1. Unstable 2. Loose connection when flies around 30 meters 3. When connection is lost with the quad you loose the video portion (cuts video) 4. Hard time flying in light wind 5. Hard time flying with the protective frame/ canopy 6. Camera cannot tilt unlike it is supposed toEven a Nano Quad Flies Better.

Pros: Excellent price, extra parts and battery included, very light, highly useful lights help with flying, wired in camera that's controlled via the remote, plenty of power and very agile for indoor flight, blade guards are a huge safety plus!Cons: Short run time (6-9 minutes depending on how hard you run it), unsuitable for outside flight with the plastic "shell" guard on (see below), low quality camera, slow battery charge time, lacks the power to fly outside with anything more than a light breeze.Intro:After much research and hand wringing, I settled on this quadcopter because, for the price, it was an unbeatable deal with the camera, uSD card, two batteries and spare parts kit included. Now that I've had some good flight time and know even more about quads, I'd have to say that I feel that the UDI 818a is an ideal choice for entry quad pilots out there.One of it's biggest advantages is it's size, having tried to break myself in on a micro quad half the size of the 818a, I can safely say that the smaller units are far less stable in anything but completely ideal environments.Durability: A SOLID 5 starsFirst off, as a complete beginner, I crashed this quad, A LOT. Walls, floors, ceiling fixtures, driveways, trees, windows, sidewalks, even my face and it's shrugged every single one off with only some scuffing on the plastics. While it's "best" to pull the throttle to zero just before a crash occurs, beginners might not do that and despite suffering several full throttle collisions, it's none the worse for wear and the carbon fiber booms on the motors certainly help make it very sturdy. This is ONE TOUGH TOY. I have absolutely ZERO complaints about the durability of this quadcopter. None.Ease of use: 4 StarsWhile the 818a itself is exceedingly easy to use, just slide in the battery, insert the uSD card and plug it in, the remote warrants at least one star being stripped off. The remote is... not great, my hands aren't small, but this thing is HUGE. It feels hollow and cheap. Probably the single largest complaint about the remote is that is does not remember the trim settings between power cycles. Turn it off and all your tweaking is gone. Add in the annoying buzzer and screwed down battery door and I just found myself rolling my eyes over the controller. Not to say it does not work, it does, it's just more annoying that it should be.On a side note, for the charger, the instruction claim that the light on the brick will turn green when charging, but instead it turns OFF. When charging is finished, you will presented with a red light.Last in the usability category is that the manual is hilariously bad "engrish". I mean REALLY bad. It's mostly readable, but I found myself laughing at it several times while reading.Quality: 5 stars (quadcopter) - 3.5 stars (remote) - 2 stars (camera)Got a mixed bag here.The build quality of the 818a itself is, in a word, excellent. Surprising even. The plastic core frame is well made and quite ridged, the carbon fiber prop booms and propeller shafts are exceedingly strong, the gears and motors have performed flawlessly and the electronics have operated without even the smallest hiccup.The remote isn't as good as the quad itself sadly. It's very light and very hollow feeling. I doubt it could take much of a drop without breaking, so hang on tight.The camera is probably the coolest feature of this toy and I enjoy using it immensely, yet, it is not without a fair share of shortcomings. It's video resolution is quite low at 640x480 and the stills are the same, yet pixel doubled up to 1280x960 making them very grainy and fuzzy. The files it records are very large and will fill up the low quality 2gb sd card included rather easily and it's low light performance is also lacking. Finally, if you remove power before stopping the recording process, you'll end up with a "broken" movie file. It will still play in a program like VLC, however you cannot skip to different points or use other advanced playback features..If you wish to see actual flight video in two types of light, I have a few of the video on youtube at dusk or low light (http://youtu.be/trhiaBRrduM) and full daylight (http://youtu.be/qF0wdAjsius)Performance: 3 stars with the plastics - 4 without.Out of the box the 818a has... acceptable power and maneuverability, with a fairly short run time of about 6-9 minutes.One thing I noticed off the bat was if you perform abrupt maneuvers, it tends to start "wobbling" which often leads to a crash. Basically, at first, using the 818a indoors with the plastic "shell" and the integrated guards is obviously the best idea. HOWEVER, once you get the hang of flying a quadcopter and can do so with few crashes and/or want to use this quad outside, take the time to cut off the blade guard loops. Seriously.I did this to try and fix the wobbly "hysteria" that this quad suffers from while performing more aggressive maneuvering and in erratic breeze, since I suspected the guards were causing a vibration interference and causing the gyro system to "panic"Once freed from that extra weight and wiggly plastic, it immediately turns into a whole different beast. It's much faster, much more maneuverable, flies a bit longer and doesn't "freak out" if a cross breeze or updraft hits it while outside.You CAN take all of the plastic shell off, but I recommend just cutting the extra off and leaving the "cap" on to protect the delicate electronics inside.In Conclusion:There MAY be a better starter quad out there, but I've flown several more and IMHO, the 818a, with the "mode 2" for more spirited flying, endless durability, camera, extra battery and spare parts while being had at a really, REALLY good price makes it the clear winner.I hope this was helpful!

It is so light that the slightest breeze and you are unable to fly it. Also the camera did not work.

As advertised, works well for entry level. The instruction manual is not very helpful, as it is loosely translated to english and has many grammar/ spelling errors along with sentence structure chaos, but here are the small issues I had:- Process for pairing the remote to the copter is not detailed in the manual, luckily I found a Youtube video that gives great instructions. Just search UDI U818A and it's the top video. http://youtu.be/voXrtF0VK9M- Wall-charger for battery packs. In the manual it states that the "indicator light will turn from Red to Green when the charging process is complete," this was not the case for mine. The indicator light on the charging unit does not glow any color when charging the battery, until the charge is complete. In my case, the light on the charger glows red when charging is complete and it is unlit during the charging process. No big deal, other than I thought my charger was defective at first.All in all a cool product that is easy to use, and for the price you can't beat it. I tried to fly this outside with 5 mph wind and it is a bit tricky. Would work best in large warehouse or in extremely calm conditions.

Decent introduction to the world of quadcopters/drones. Removing one star because the charger was defective, the red light doesn't come on, never turns green and seems to be defective.

The one that I got seems to be defective. It would only fly for one minute, and then not be able to get off the ground. I contacted the manufacturer and they never replied to my question. So no customer support, either. I give it two stars because it's possible that others work better than the one that I got. But if they were all like mine, it would only rate one star. By the way, the manual is also dreadful, short, and in many places wrong.

Bought this for my son for Christmas. Great starter Quad kit. comes with 2 batteries and extra props and has a video and still camera that is very good quality for what it is. Better than several others in it's class. Lacks a bit of power for outdoors unless there is no wind, but it's still fun. My son took it up about 75 feet with very little practice and took some great video of the neighborhood. highly recommend for beginners!

The UDI 818 A is a well made quadcopter, with high levels of plastic. The power of the motors is lacking for out door use.