There were a few quadcopters at the shop front, but cost more than I'd fork out and I usually just go "oooo lust" and the price tag would make me go on my merry way.
That fine day, I went to check out the r/c toys section (ha) and found tiny palm sized quadcopters that didn't bust the bank. Surely, these were more than toys. Or were they?
After getting home, and doing much googling and youtube watching, I decided to get the Hubsan X4 as my first quadcopter. It had many things going for it - small size is good, as I'm going to move to Vancouver shortly - good price - 720p camera (!!!) - controller is seemingly well built.
Bought one online last week and it arrived this afternoon. The charger is a tiny USB affair, and the included battery took about half an hour to charge up. The instructions are rather well written, and apart from the 'copter and controller, included a detachable guard for indoors flying, as well as additional propeller blades and a small tool to pry 'em off the 'copter.
Runtime of this baby is maybe 5-6 minutes, I didn't really time it. I'd suggest buying a few extra batteries. On the topic of buying - you'd need a micro SDHC card for the camera, as well as 4 AAAs for the controller (I wish they used AAs - I don't have any rechargeable AAAs on me)
I must say, flying it is quite a challenge. The two sticks control 3 key controls: the left stick controls how the 'copter rotates along its vertical axis, as well as controlling the speed of the motors, making the copter go up and down. The right stick moves the 'copter forward/back/left/right.
Doing it all at once - maintaining the copter at a certain level, turning and moving - is something that I'm sure will take me awhile to sort out. I've got a few more batteries arriving shortly in the mail (I hope!) and I am planning to spend some time during lunch practicing, as I'd like to get some video footage of the beach before I leave this fine country.
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