JJRC H8C Review (Ready To Fly Version)
The JJRC H8C is one of JJRC’s most popular drones since its release in late 2014. It was designed to compete with the wildly popular Syma X5C, but the goal was to surpass the X5C’s abilities.
The H8C has a sleek design that’s more exciting and cool than the rounded off Syma. The black version gives a more racy look, and while it doesn’t go any faster than the other colors (LOL), it sure looks cooler doing it!
One of the best things about the H8C is that with a bit of modification, you can mount a GoPro and Gimbal – The H8c definitely has the load-carrying capacity, and will still maintain smooth flight with the added weight, thanks to the more powerful rotor motors than found in the Syma. The H8C runs on a 7.2V battery, as opposed to most other drones in it’s class using the 3.2V battery — only half the power.
Specifications
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Package list: 1 * JJRC H8C Quadcopter w/ Camera 1 * 2.4G Transmitter(mode 2,left hand throttle) 1 * 7.4V 500mAh lipo battery 1 * EU Plug Adaptor 1 * Pair landing Gear 4 * Spare propeller 4 * Propeller protector 1 * 2GB Memory card 1 * Card reader 1 * Tool set 1 * English user manual |
There are many different variations of what comes with the JJRC H8C when you’re shopping on Amazon, but for a standard RTF (Ready to Fly) package, you’re looking around $60 with the camera, and $40 for the no-camera version.
Since the drone only gives 5-7 minutes of flight time, and it takes about 60-75 minutes to recharge the battery, we’d suggest getting a couple of extra batteries and a second charger.
If you get the version that includes the camera module, it’s a 2MP 720P camera with pretty shoddy video. Honestly, strapping a cheap SJ8000 action cam would at least give you 1080P and a much clearer video for under $100.
If you click on the image to the left, you can see that even the still images are pretty crappy. There’s a lot of blurs, chromatic abrasion, and overall, just not what you’d probably want for anything more than to have fun.
One of the biggest (but least advertised) features of the JJRC H8D is its on-off switch! You might not think that it’s a big deal, but consider the fact that a lot of other drones don’t have this, and you’d have to actually disconnect the battery when you wanted to conserve power in between flights or remove the battery completely.
The H8C will fly moderately well in winds up to 5 miles per hour, and anything above that, you’d want to run at 100% gyro sensitivity, but that will severely cut down your flight time. Flying indoors can be done, but considering the drone’s size, it would be hard in small areas.
As seen above, the controller has everything a pilot needs for basic flight including an LCD Display reading out the battery power left and other readings. The button on the upper left of the transmitter lets you toggle between 4 difficulty modes – 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. The lower the percentage, the easier it is to fly. The button on the upper right is the dedicated “stunt” button. Press this button when the H8C is flying and the transmitter will start beeping indicating the H8C is ready to perform a flip.
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