JXD 509g - not a bad aerial photography rig for beginners

The JXD 509G was kindly provided by Gearbest for review,  and is available to purchase from GearBest here -

https://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_240434.html?wid=21&lkid=11140779

 This is an affiliate link, which, at no extra cost to customers, generates a small commission for me and is used to gauge the impact of my reviews.

The JXD 509G is an RTF (Ready To Fly) quadcopter that is fitted with a 1080p HD camera and on-board DVR to capture aerial footage, without the inherent interference that comes with capturing DVR footage from the FPV (First Person View) video feed. The image quality if the camera is actually pretty good, but as soon as the props start spinning vibrations are introduced to the image creating a 'jello' effect. There are some steps you can take to eliminate this effect, I managed to use a single rubber band to great effect!

The 509G comes with a transmitter and  FPV screen to control the craft, and receive real-time video from the camera on-board. The craft comes locked into an altitude hold function, which is useful for aerial photography, however as I disable auto-stabilization on all of my quadcopters, I actually found it a hindrance while flying, as you can only descend as fast as the flight controller software will allow, being unable to simply cut the throttle. 

The FPV screen comes with a handy sun visor, and attaches to the top of the radio controller so you can easily switch between LOS (Line Of Sight) and FPV flying. There is no option to change the band or channel of the 5.8ghz feed, so if you want to use other FPV display equipment, the frequency that mine uses is 5.705Ghz.

In summary,

The 509G looks pretty cool in the air, and if you find a way to eliminate the jello from the video then it is capable of capturing some nice images. The altitude hold control system is great for first timers, but a bit of a hindrance to an acro pilot like me. For about $100 it is one of the cheapest ways to capture aerial video on-board a quadcopter, with everything you need included in the box, including an 8Gb micro SD card!