The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K is causing quite a stir among drone enthusiasts, and is celebrated as “no toy quadcopter” but rather a “serious piece of aerial filmmaking equipment.”
Building on the highly popular Q500 platform which was released late last year, the Q500 4K brings all the best from its predecessor with some extra 4K goodness thrown in. It also features a new and sleek gunmetal finish.
So is the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K worth the hefty price tag of over a thousand dollars? Let’s find out:
The new Q500 4K and its gunmetal finish looks so bad ass, we swear Bruce Willis was staring at us right through that 4K camera.
The Drone
Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K is built like most quadcopters and previous other Typhoon models. The battery is positioned in the back to offset the weight of the camera for better stability. But what sets this drone apart from the rest is that you are able to remove the 4K camera and use it on its own. You can now use the camera and gimbal with a hand unit that is provided to shoot home videos or anything you can think of.
The Typhoon Q500 4K meets all the new FAA regulations and has the latest firmware updated to comply with all the new laws involving drones. With its GPS features you don’t have to worry about your drone flying above the legal fly height or into no fly zones. The body of the drone is made out of high quality plastic and can take a beating, if needed.
Flight
This quadcopter provides up to 25 minutes fly time when equipped with a 5400mAh 3S 11.1V LiPo battery. Factors such as wind and how much video you take contribute to flight time. The drone may be flown in three different modes: Smart (Follow Me and Watch Me), Angle and Home. These modes are changed by a switch on the top right of your controller.
Flying the quadcopter in Smart Mode makes the drone a personal action camera. You can set the drone to follow and orbit. When the Follow Me is enabled, the aircraft is leashed to the pilot. However, enabling the “Follow Me” feature means connecting the drone to at least seven satellites. You also must position the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K to the height and angle you want, and switch it from Angle to Smart Mode. Watch Me feature makes the drone stay pointed at the pilot, no matter how you fly the drone, the 4K camera will be pointed at you. Like most drone you can freely fly the Typhoon Q500 4K.
The remote control for this bad boy is a step above the rest. The remote that is included has a built-in 5.5 inch display and runs Android. So you will not be able to clip on your smartphone. With an easy two-stick system for the pitch and angle of the drone, anyone can learn how to fly. Yuneec recommends using their test flight app to test out your flying skills before taking your new drone on its first flight.
Camera
The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K has a camera called the CGO3. The CGO3 camera features a 3-axis gimbal with a 360-degree rotation and a 90-degree tilt. The camera features a 115-degree wide-angle distortion-free lens that allows you to see the world in a fisheye view or you can remove the lens and view the world as is. The Camera shoots in 4K, 2.7K & 2.5K at 30FPS. FULL HD: 1080p at 24/25/30/48/50/60/120FPS and captures 12 megapixel images. The Camera also can live stream video to both the remote and to any cell phone with a range of about 600 meters. Yuneec recommends Android devices over Apple.
The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K also comes with small LED lights that indicate when the camera is on and recording.
A fantastic drone for aerial filming, the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K is well priced compared to some of the other 4K drones. This drone has some of the newest features and latest drone requirements. With this drone you don’t have to buy an extra camera or gimbal to complete your drone like some other companies require you to do.
The Typhoon Q500 4K is available for order now (with free shipping) at DroneFly.