spent the weekend at Sunset and played with the AR using my phone and tablet. with the indoor rings and the outside cover. recording the video on my phone, tablet, and usb. zero wind to 5ish mph.

on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I would put it in the ocean and watch it float away.
as for the simple fact of playing with it and doing a bit of filming, I give it a 8. as for doing anything with kites, buggies, or boards, 2.

pro's
great editing software and video setup before filming. you can switch between the front camera to the down camera while in flight.
you can take stills as you are filming the video.
record to a usb or onto your phone/tablet.
you can set the height, speed, maneuverability, joy stick or full control during flight.
you can see what you are filming as you fly.
low battery alarm is nice.
it did not break when it crashed, the gears and electronics were a mess but that cleaned up after I took it apart.

con's
hard to know were your thumbs are in relation to the controls on the screen.
about a 3 second delay from what the copter did to you being able to see it on the screen.
you need to have the phone/tablet fully charged or you loose contact/ with the video or the quad.
distance is rather small and depends on you phone/tablet power and range.
it doesnt always stop and hover when communication is lost.
very hard to tell the front from the back during flight.
any slight or strong wind will increase the flying speed from hardly moving to mach 5 before you can react.
altitude censers can be thrown off by a dead tree branch or anything else as you fly over it.
the camera is either strait ahead or directly down from the copter.
have yet to see how the home button works.
gears, electronics, wires, props are all exposed on each of the 4 arms.

I did take some videos and am having problems with converting them to a format thats easy to view. I will post one video with a crash as it was leaving to be with the fish while telling me the connection was lost, as soon as it finishes loading. it finally responded to the emergency button as I was running after it and crashed onto the beach, rightside up and ready to go again.

http://youtu.be/YgtS2GSeE6w (waiting for upload)

Whoa! Big change from the other days opinion:

"Spent some time with the AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Power Edition. Got to say it has surprised me. The biggest surprise is the ease of the tablt or smartphone used to opperate it."

Guess the honeymoons over on The AR Drone huh? I'm staying away from it just for the reasons you stated and the poor video quality with the installed camera. There is the McGyver mod which you can purchase that comes with a fully sticked Transmitter, better range and battery life. Its $129 on fleabay but is it worth it?

I like this model, price is good, reviews are good and it has unlimited upgrade prospects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gczdh_L9550

con's

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

hard to know were your thumbs are in relation to the controls on the screen.

If you have bags of ill-gotten money that you have to ditch before the Feds catch up to you, the NVidia Shield can be used to control the AR Drone and it has the more traditional joystick type controls. Added bonus: control range gets kicked up to 300 meters.

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

very hard to tell the front from the back during flight.

You could always swap out either the front or rear props with props of a different color. Sadly, the colored props are more expensive.... but hey more money you can ditch before the Feds catch up.

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

gears, electronics, wires, props are all exposed on each of the 4 arms.

Is outdoor flight impractical with the indoor frame because it turns the whole thing into a gigantic sail?

ATB,
Sam

In all fairness the thing was OK in the beginner mode with all the limitations, but once you remove the limitations it isnt much fun. The flip is cool, but who wants that in the video?
Not sure but adding 2 more props would reduce lean and be more stable for filming, something I am looking into already.
Guess you pay a little, get a little.

Definitely more expensive, but has nice features like Loiter, Return To Launch, and quite possibly the most important for kiting applications.... a "Follow Me" mode. Like the fact that two of the struts are a different color and there is an "orientation light" so you can tell which end is forward.



ATB,
Sam

Quote: Originally posted by indigo_wolf

[/rquote] Is outdoor flight impractical with the indoor frame because it turns the whole thing into a gigantic sail? ATB, Sam

it is a big wind catcher. As an off the shelf item, I would expect the copter to work a bit better.

I guess I can spend all my ill gotten gains on mods and upgrades and customise my truck to fly with a remote control and film with my google glass, or not. With all that, I would rather get the new phantom with its own camera built in.
I will use my qx350 with a bit more enthusiasm.

ive been messing with drones for a few months now, IMO.... your going to need a custom built drone with bigger rotors/motors gps, gimble, ect to be able to even start thinking about buggy/board kite filming. you need a bigger drone to cut through the wind. those production mass built drones wont cut it. Although there are a few models which come pre assembled that are plug and play that might work.....

Quote: Originally posted by Houston AirHead

ive been messing with drones for a few months now, IMO.... your going to need a custom built drone with bigger rotors/motors gps, gimble, ect to be able to even start thinking about buggy/board kite filming. you need a bigger drone to cut through the wind. those production mass built drones wont cut it. Although there are a few models which come pre assembled that are plug and play that might work.....

Exactly.
yesterday I did try to film a few of the trucks that we're driving down the beach and getting some type of picture of them, and the best I could do was to fly along side of the vehicles while the copter was sideways. The problem was matching there speed to get a decent video. I do like the idea of crazy herbs solo shot. But we'll see what happens, it's only money right Sam?

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

But we'll see what happens, it's only money right Sam?

Noooooooooooo..... it's cat food.



ATB,
Sam

definitely need a big unit to hold in 20knots, something like 10s-12s lipos and may only last 10 minutes or so. motors would be like soda cans! everything gets pricey in that weight and power range. beating even light air would be a challenging...definitely would be a power hog!

Found a very nice motion stabilizing gimbal for the Parrot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eskdJQItqbk BIGKID are you looking into these things too?

Quote: Originally posted by erratic winds

Found a very nice motion stabilizing gimbal for the Parrot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eskdJQItqbk BIGKID are you looking into these things too?

I looked into that and a few others. I could build one heck of a setup that would do everything I want but the cost is a lot more than I want to spend. Besides spending a lot of time designing and building the end result, I have a couple other projects that need to be finished first.