H+ Opinions

[thoneter]

So I'm a broke poor boy. I have to live vicariously through others that have the H+. Wanted to hear some feedback on what you guys think of the H+ images and 360 pans with the H+ camera versus the 480. Not looking to trash the Yuneec products just want to hear the pros and cons to getting one some day or wait for the new 920 upgrade

 

[Steve Carr]

You already know my opinion. The C23 is a great camera. I am also waiting to see what happens with the 920. So far it seems to be silent.

 

[Ty Pilot]

If you're looking for a comparison between the regular 480 and the Plus here are my thoughts on why the Plus is better

THE GOOD

• Imagery - Both video and especially stills; the Plus is far superior in every respect - the C23 is about as good as any 20 MP camera currently in a drone. I suspect when the H3 is fully exposed we will find it will have very little advantage over the C-23 (a recent post has revealed that the new ION L1 has more barrel distortion that the C23)
• Flying Performance - It was one of the things that most surprised me but the the Plus's flight performance also is much better that that of the 480 - and here again as a camera platform this further increases the imagery potential.
• User Interface - The redesigned screen of the ST-16s allows a larger image and at the same time gives you more information at a glance, so I give a slight edge to the Plus here but then again we lost some of the functionality in the trim-ability of controls which I will hit on below
• Portability - Well this has never been a strong suit of the Typhoon family when compared to the rest of the market but compared to it predecessor or the larger 920 it gives up nothing to the 480 but it is more compact and lighter than a 920

THE BAD

• Effectively Zero Customer Support - Anyone that has been with Yuneec for a while has seen a steady decline in customer support and with the recent changing of repair facilities, the likelihood of being down for months or longer should you need CS is a real possibility.
• Spare Parts - Again the lack of spares is a daunting reality
• LiHV Battery Debacle - The truth of the matter is LiHV batteries are NOT superior in any way over LiPo when considering their effective life span. LiHV's give steller performance early in life but after just 20 or so flights they begin to lose their capacity. At 120 flights my Plus batteries are at around 60% of where they started. By contrast, my 480 batteries only lost about 20% over 200 flights.
• Planned Obsolescence - These systems are never going to reach their full potential due to the nature of the market - Yuneec is gambling that their customer base will continue to buy newer more expensive drones while they strangle those who are already flying Yuneec products (See Above)

My Thoughts in General - I have enjoyed the Typhoons for over three years, they are and have been, potentially class leaders - the Plus gave me everything I felt the 480 was lacking. I suspect the C23's imagery will be relevant for a long time to come in this class. But when you get a Plus (or any Yuneec drone for that matter - except the 480) consider yourself to be on a virtual island because if anything goes wrong or breaks you will be hard pressed to get help other than what you can find on this forum. I bought the Plus with the thought that if I crashed and it needed repair I would simply buy a second and use the first for parts. I have had my Plus now for a year and a half and while it is still performing well, I would only recommend it to seasoned pilots who are familiar with the way Yuneec runs their business.

 

[thoneter]

If you're looking for a comparison between the regular 480 and the Plus here are my thoughts on why the Plus is better

THE GOOD

• Imagery - Both video and especially stills; the Plus is far superior in every respect - the C23 is about as good as any 20 MP camera currently in a drone. I suspect when the H3 is fully exposed we will find it will have very little advantage over the C-23 (a recent post has revealed that the new ION L1 has more barrel distortion that the C23)
• Flying Performance - It was one of the things that most surprised me but the the Plus's flight performance also is much better that that of the 480 - and here again as a camera platform this further increases the imagery potential.
• User Interface - The redesigned screen of the ST-16s allows a larger image and at the same time gives you more information at a glance, so I give a slight edge to the Plus here but then again we lost some of the functionality in the trim-ability of controls which I will hit on below
• Portability - Well this has never been a strong suit of the Typhoon family when compared to the rest of the market but compared to it predecessor or the larger 920 it gives up nothing to the 480 but it is more compact and lighter than a 920

THE BAD

• Effectively Zero Customer Support - Anyone that has been with Yuneec for a while has seen a steady decline in customer support and with the recent changing of repair facilities, the likelihood of being down for months or longer should you need CS is a real possibility.
• Spare Parts - Again the lack of spares is a daunting reality
• LiHV Battery Debacle - The truth of the matter is LiHV batteries are NOT superior in any way over LiPo when considering their effective life span. LiHV's give steller performance early in life but after just 20 or so flights they begin to lose their capacity. At 120 flights my Plus batteries are at around 60% of where they started. By contrast, my 480 batteries only lost about 20% over 200 flights.
• Planned Obsolescence - These systems are never going to reach their full potential due to the nature of the market - Yuneec is gambling that their customer base will continue to buy newer more expensive drones while they strangle those who are already flying Yuneec products (See Above)

My Thoughts in General - I have enjoyed the Typhoons for over three years, they are and have been, potentially class leaders - the Plus gave me everything I felt the 480 was lacking. I suspect the C23's imagery will be relevant for a long time to come in this class. But when you get a Plus (or any Yuneec drone for that matter - except the 480) consider yourself to be on a virtual island because if anything goes wrong or breaks you will be hard pressed to get help other than what you can find on this forum. I bought the Plus with the thought that if I crashed and it needed repair I would simply buy a second and use the first for parts. I have had my Plus now for a year and a half and while it is still performing well, I would only recommend it to seasoned pilots who are familiar with the way Yuneec runs their business.

I think you hit every pertinent nail on the head. I had hoped they would utilize the 920's platform and get a mirrorless camera on board. It would be nice to see the flying stability of the h+ on the improved 920 along with a cool mirrorless camera.

Looks like Yuneec is continuing to ignore the forums, users, Steve and you!

 

[Ty Pilot]

Yeah the 920 could/should be a real cinematic tool with it's lifting capability but like everything else they've dropped the ball on that one too.

One thing I did not expound on above is that; as the negativity of the general public towards "Drones" continues to rise, I find at times I want to be more like a fly on the wall. I am planning on doing a documentary style video of the town I live in and while the airspace is clear I would rather like to be able to get in, get the shots and get out without a lot of people noticing.

A neighbor just got into flying and after flying a couple sub 100 dollar craft he purchased a DJI Mini. He asked me to fly with him so I charged my Plus one day and went to his house. For his first flight I said I would just be an observer and there if he needed any help. Well his first flight he was flying around the entire neighborhood and at one point it was getting very hard for me to see so I asked him to 'bring it a little closer' which he did and after 25 minutes (?) he brought it over the road right in front and just flew close for a few minutes then landed.

Now this was at about 5:30 PM - people driving home from work, talking walks and so forth - NO ONE noticed! Skip forward to me strapping on the controller and taking off and within 3 minutes we had 5 people walking up and asking questions and one car stopped in the middle of the road and caused a traffic jam of sorts so he pulled over and got out to talk to me. Needless to say I just had to land as I could not listen to everyone asking questions and fly safely.

My drone fleet will soon have some form of a compact, light, small and quite drone very shortly though I do not know which one just yet.

 

[Mrgs1]

To be fair, I don't know OP location, but we still have a good supply of parts in EU, what's not at Yuneec UK or Germany, Copter EU and other dealers have pretty much everything. I've only dealt with Yuneec UK and service is very good, no schedule calls, you just call them, you can email, they always answer, even out of office hours, you can email or call to even visit them in Essex, obviously it's a smaller outfit than US, but the rot hasn't set in yet!

 

[Ty Pilot]

Yep I should have made that distinction that if one is in the US those things apply.

 

[Mrgs1]

Yep I should have made that distinction that if one is in the US those things apply.

I suspect we might be on borrowed time. But it's always seemed strange that the products launch first in Europe? And they kept battery's going til late 2018, when I'm sure the US is a bigger market? Perhaps it's political or something?
Let's hope the H3 is a new dawn when the past is put to sleep, and they move on.

 

[thoneter]

Yeah the 920 could/should be a real cinematic tool with it's lifting capability but like everything else they've dropped the ball on that one too.

One thing I did not expound on above is that; as the negativity of the general public towards "Drones" continues to rise, I find at times I want to be more like a fly on the wall. I am planning on doing a documentary style video of the town I live in and while the airspace is clear I would rather like to be able to get in, get the shots and get out without a lot of people noticing.

A neighbor just got into flying and after flying a couple sub 100 dollar craft he purchased a DJI Mini. He asked me to fly with him so I charged my Plus one day and went to his house. For his first flight I said I would just be an observer and there if he needed any help. Well his first flight he was flying around the entire neighborhood and at one point it was getting very hard for me to see so I asked him to 'bring it a little closer' which he did and after 25 minutes (?) he brought it over the road right in front and just flew close for a few minutes then landed.

Now this was at about 5:30 PM - people driving home from work, talking walks and so forth - NO ONE noticed! Skip forward to me strapping on the controller and taking off and within 3 minutes we had 5 people walking up and asking questions and one car stopped in the middle of the road and caused a traffic jam of sorts so he pulled over and got out to talk to me. Needless to say I just had to land as I could not listen to everyone asking questions and fly safely.

My drone fleet will soon have some form of a compact, light, small and quite drone very shortly though I do not know which one just yet.

It is a sad commentary that us responsible (yes I include me) fliers have to go and get small drones that make less noise so the gov't and people don't notice us so we don't get shut down.

The gov't will shut us down or limit it to our own back yards for flying. Amazon, USPS, Google etcetera will get access to the skies and we'll get shut out in the near future.

Some public awareness announcements from me: Don't eat yellow snow, don't pour hot scolding coffee on your crotch, put your seatbelt on when your driving, when you swim don't drown, don't run with scissors etcetera because the gov't has to remind us that if it wasn't for them we wouldn't know what to do!

 

[thoneter]

I suspect we might be on borrowed time. But it's always seemed strange that the products launch first in Europe? And they kept battery's going til late 2018, when I'm sure the US is a bigger market? Perhaps it's political or something?
Let's hope the H3 is a new dawn when the past is put to sleep, and they move on.

We fliers have been hoping things will get better since day 1. The tech is getting better but the politics, support and the hope for the future is dwindling. It's 2020 according to the propaganda coming from the press but were heading towards 1984 and time will freeze.

 

[Mrgs1]

You already know my opinion. The C23 is a great camera. I am also waiting to see what happens with the 920. So far it seems to be silent.

But would you say the plus has less reliability than the H480? Seems to be a released product with hit and miss reliability, you either get one that works or a pig, remember on facebook the lady who had three new in a row with gimbal issues, yes I know you only hear bad news, but it's not good reading for someone considering a plus, even off putting, it's a lot of money, with a 50-50 chance of giving you grief.

 

[thoneter]

Anyone know how the EVO 2 rates with the H+?

 

[rdonson]

Anyone know how the EVO 2 rates with the H+?

Only the specs are widely available. A few YouTube reviewers received some production EVO 2 8K models but no tangible, decent reviews yet that I've seen.

 

[Riktar]

And looking at the specs makes me wonder.....

Packing 48 million pixels and 8k onto a 1/2 sensor is really pushing it. I would be really surprised if the videos and photos don't start falling apart under less than perfect lighting. Especially in the shadows.

Even with advancements in technology I am going to paraphrase a line from hot rodders back in the 60's.....

"There's no substitute for cubic millimeters...."

Now the pro model with it's 1" sensor looks really interesting and I would love to see a comparison with that against the other 1" sensor platforms.

And I could very well be wrong about all of this. heck, wouldn't be first the time.

No matter how it may shake out, I am very interested to see the reviews for Evo II.

 

[PatR]

So I'm a broke poor boy. I have to live vicariously through others ...

Do you have brown eyes?[emoji3166][emoji849][emoji6]

 

[rdonson]

And looking at the specs makes me wonder.....

Packing 48 million pixels and 8k onto a 1/2 sensor is really pushing it. I would be really surprised if the videos and photos don't start falling apart under less than perfect lighting. Especially in the shadows.

Even with advancements in technology I am going to paraphrase a line from hot rodders back in the 60's.....

"There's no substitute for cubic millimeters...."

Now the pro model with it's 1" sensor looks really interesting and I would love to see a comparison with that against the other 1" sensor platforms.

And I could very well be wrong about all of this. heck, wouldn't be first the time.

No matter how it may shake out, I am very interested to see the reviews for Evo II.

Basically the 1/2" sensor is 12 MP and through the magic of software they use pixel binning to "create" 48 MP. Don't expect it to look near as good as a 1" sensor and 4K. It will probably sell some low end drones though. At least until reviewers weigh in.

The sweet spot for most of us will be the 1" camera on the EVO Pro.

 

[thoneter]

Do you have brown eyes?[emoji3166][emoji849][emoji6]

Not full of caca all the way to the eyes yet. They are blue though

 

[Mrgs1]

Not full of caca all the way to the eyes yet. They are blue though

Wasn't that a Crystal Gayle song?

 

[thoneter]

Wasn't that a Crystal Gayle song?

Don't it make my brown eyes blue?

 

[cabinfourus]

So I'm a broke poor boy. I have to live vicariously through others that have the H+. Wanted to hear some feedback on what you guys think of the H+ images and 360 pans with the H+ camera versus the 480. Not looking to trash the Yuneec products just want to hear the pros and cons to getting one some day or wait for the new 920 upgrade

I purchased used parts on eBay and built one from scratch. I have less than 250 in the entire setup. I am more than pleased with mine. The C23 video quality is amazing. My purchases all started with an ST16+ I found on eBay for 35 bucks. I wanted to use it with my Q500. I then started following a seller on eBay who sold parts for the Typhoon H models and next thing I knew I had purchased everything I needed to build one.