Yuneec Typhoon Q500

Have you ever asked your self if an expensive quad copter for aerial photography like the Yuneec Q500 is something for you? Well this might be the review for you!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Yuneec Q500 so I was able to try out the aerial photography part of our hobby. The Yuneec Q500 is a Ready To Fly (RTF) quad copter specially designed for aerial photography. And is comparable with the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. The Yuneec Q500 is equipped with a camera and gimbal for silky smooth aerial video. and I have to say this gimbal is absolute ridiculously good. But this comes with a price tag. A $1300,-  price tag to be exact

The Build Quality

The build quality very good but will be a nightmare to do any repair works. The gimbal is removable. And so it the Battery and propellors. And everything else is well... not exactly designed to replace very often. And that is something I don't like. And for the most people this is a problem. Ofcourse you are not planning on crashing this thing but ask your self what if I crash it?

The flight characteristics

As a seasoned pilot I find the flight characteristics creepy. This thing doesn't want to crash and doesn't allow you to crash. This is a good thing for new pilots but for me this is creepy. You can feel the aircraft taking over control when you are going to takeoff or land. Especially the landing. The aircraft will change its descent rate according to the altitude. For example if you are coming in hot for a landing it will punch the throttle by it self to prevent a hard landing. It also haves different flight modes as we all know. There is a interesting flight mode called Follow Me. The aircraft will follow the transmitter at a locked altitude. This works very well. The first Yuneec Q500 had problems with the return to home function. even with enough satellites it wanted to return to China instead. The aircraft almost crashed and was returned to the local hobby shop for a new one. And the new one works like it should be.

The ''FPV''

The Remote control is equipped with a touch screen to setup the aircraft and see its view from the camera. You can record and take pictures at the same time and the camera is equipped with a 8gb SD card. The camera is a 12MP full HD camera and its quite good. The screen is very good. You can control the gimbal up or down and this happens very slowly for smooth video. There is some lag since it works on Wi-Fi and I have not yet found a option to use my Fatshark goggles with it. But this setup works well for aerial photography.

Those are 2 videos shot with the stock onboard camera and gimbal from the Yuneec Q500.

Conclusion.

I asked myself the question before buying: Is an expensive quadcopter for aerial photography something for me. I have to be honest with you. The answer is a yes and a no at the same time. For me personally it is just to much of the good stuff. The Yuneec Q500 works perfectly fine but I want to have the feeling that I am in control. It feels odd to fly this aircraft when you are used to a cheap quadcopter with a kk2.0 board slapped on it. And using the return to home function still freaks me out because I am not in control. So I end up not using all the high tech functions in this aircraft. I ended up using this aircraft for aerial photography only and I really enjoy this. Thanks to the outstanding aerial photography capability's I think this aircraft is worth every penny.