Drones, quad-copters and multi-rotor helicopters are all the rage at the moment, but the sheer amount of choice as well as the huge range of prices can make it difficult to know what to buy and how much to spend. Here we explain what you need to know about buying a drone, and review the best quadcopters for all budgets.
Drones are known by many names, including quad-copters, mini-quads, multi-rotor craft and more. Most commonly they have four rotors but vary in their size, price and features.
Latest entry: DJI Phantom 4
Quadcopter buying guide: Price
At the entry level , mini-quads start at just £10, but you won’t get a camera unless you pay around £50. Increase your budget towards £100 and you should expect to get live video (first-person view) on your smartphone via a free app, or even a colour screen on the remote control. The Revell X-Spy, for example, costs £80 online and has a mount above the remote control for holding your smartphone.
At higher prices, you get more for your money. As well as longer flight times (see below) drones should also have better on-board processing to help with flying. For example, both the Parrot AR Drone and DJI Phantom 2 can hover in one spot, whereas cheaper drones require you to be constantly adjusting the controls just to maintain position in the air.
Quadcopter buying guide: Cameras
Not all drones come with cameras. You don’t need a camera, since you should always have the drone in your line of sight while flying it. And even if a drone has a camera, it may not offer FPV (a real-time video stream) which you need in order to fly it without line-of-sight.
At the cheaper end of the price scale you’ll be lucky to get even VGA video, but it’s worth opting for at least 720p (1280x720) if you want a drone for aerial video. Bear in mind that - as ever - you can't trust specs alone. One 720p camera may shoot detailed footage while another looks more like CCTV from the 1980s.
However, you’ll only get great quality footage if you buy a drone with a gimbal. This is a gryo-stabilised mount for the camera which keeps it steady when the drone tilts or moves around. They don’t come cheap, though.
Some cameras record video directly to a microSD card (or USB drive) but others record from the remote control, or even directly to a smartphone. Direct recording is usually more reliable and better quality.
Quadcopter buying guide: Flight time… and charging time
Typically, you can expect between 5 and 15 minutes of flight time between charges, which themselves take around an hour. It’s a shame more companies don’t supply multiple batteries, as you really need one or two spares.
You should also budget for a couple of sets of rechargeable AA batteries as most controllers take four of them, and those with live video screens will burn through a set of alkaline batteries in under an hour.
Quadcopter buying guide: Range & where to fly
Although some manufacturers claim a range of over 100m, it’s best to assume you’ll never get more than about 50m. By law in the UK, you must keep the ‘unmanned aircraft’ in your line of sight at all times, anyway.
Realistically, you can’t easily fly a quadcopter in your home. The rooms are too small and the rotors can be dangerous to people and pets. Plus, pets and children are scared by them. Only the tiniest models - such as the Hubsan X4 and Revell X-Spy can really be flown in small spaces.
Even a garden is likely to be too limited on space, and it’s all too easy to lose control and end up crashing your drone into a neighbour’s garden. Even worse, you may not know exactly which garden it landed in, and won’t be able to get it back (we know this from unfortunate first-hand experience). In fact, it’s well worth putting some contact details such as an email address on a label stuck somewhere on the drone just in case.
The best place is a field, park or other open space where there are no trees for the drone to get caught in, and no people or dogs to hit.
Bear in mind that you can only fly (safely) in relatively windless conditions, and don’t forget that it might be a lot windier up in the air where the drone is flying than your controlling position on the ground!
Quadcopter buying guide: Spares
The fragile nature of drones means you will probably break propellers (rotors) and other bits and pieces fairly regularly. All drones come with a full set of spare rotors, but as two rotate anti-clockwise and the other pair clockwise, you’ve only got two spares for each pair of spindles.
For this reason, it’s worth choosing a drone for which spare parts are easy to obtain. A low purchase price might be tempting, but it could be a waste of money if you can’t buy extra rotors. Sometimes, you'll get discounted spares if you order at the same time as the quadcopter, and a couple of sets of rotors are a must.
Another point to note is that you won't get brushless motors on cheap quadcopters. They have cheaper brushed motors that have a much more limited lifespan. This is ok if you can buy spares (which are usually very cheap) but you will need the skills to remove a burned-out motor and solder in a new one.
The DJI Phantom and Parrot AR.Drone have brushless motors which should last a lot longer, and require no maintenance.
Quadcopter buying guide: Privacy and the law - Dronecode
You can read all about the rules for flying 'recreational' drones in the UK. Suffice to say that you are responsible for any collisions and that it’s illegal to fly your drone “over a congested area”. You should also “think about what you do with any images you obtain as you may breach privacy laws”. Basically, you need a big open space away from roads, people, buildings and animals and pets. You shouldn’t post any aerial video which would allow anyone to be identified on YouTube or social networks unless you have their permission.
Best quadcopters 2016
I've reviewed a selection of quadcopters here, but not all come with cameras. The WLToys V303 and Flying 3D X8 are capable of carrying a GoPro-style camera, though, but you'll need to budget for that (and a gimbal if you want stable video). Only the DJI Phantoms record decent video: the rest are either mediocre or downright rubbish. Poor-quality video is ok if you want to use it simply for flying the quadcopter, but if you want to use it in home videos or for sharing with friends, be prepared to spend more than £250.
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