Tech Tuesday: It's a Bird! It's a Plane! Nope—It's a New Quadcopter

Piloting a quadcopter may be the next best thing to soaring with a jet-propelled wingsuit. The hottest new toy for photographers and videographers, quadcopters (or “drones”) are not without controversy, but that hasn’t stopped an influx of new unmanned flying machines like the Aries BlackBird X10, available exclusively at Adorama.

Outfitted with an on-board camera that’s capable of capturing 1080p/30fps HD video and 16 megapixel stills, the device’s f/2.8 lens has a 120-degree field of view and can be adjusted up to 90 degrees.

Pretty much ready-to-go out of the box, all you have to do is charge the  X10’s battery, download the Android or iOS app and load the camera with a MicroSD card (compatible with up to 32GB cards). Then, you’re ready for take-off.

Battery life is estimated at 25 minutes flying time and the X10 can reach heights of up to 1500 feet, although its transmitter range is 1,640 feet for a little extra wiggle room. In addition to remote flight and camera controls (start/stop video, shoot stills, change settings, change camera angle), the X10 is equipped with a 6-axis gyro stabilizer, GPS and, of course, Wi-Fi. The copter is “weather protected” and comes with propellor guards for added safety.

And speaking of safety, the X10 is designed to overcome specific failures like loss of control (or even when you release the flight controls) or transmitter signal loss, including depletion of battery power. For the former, the copter will hover and maintain its position and height; for the latter, a Failsafe mode kicks in and the Automatic Flight Control system takes over to land it from its original take-off point.

The X10, which weighs about 3 pounds, is available for $699 until 2/1/2015; then it’s full price at $799—still not a bad deal considering it’s good to go right out of the box.