5-10 mins of footage from the air can capture quite a bit. Certainly from angles not possible with feet planted firmly on the ground.

The flying aspect has a video game feel to it, improving hand/eye coordination.

I can't recommend many in the current market. I bought an original DJI phantom back when they were towards the front of the Ready to Fly (RFT) pack. Now there are many choices.

Your kids will likely have many fads. $150 isn't a huge amount of money.

In gross terms, you're going to get what you pay for. At $150, you're going to get lower end operability and features. IMHO, for a 10 y/o kid and fad technology, that's still a pretty good gift.

If it's something that she wants to integrate into other hobbies, then simple is the way to go. Better that she work around its relative inadequacies than have an expensive device in which she's only using a small fraction of its capabilities.

I don't have any recommendations other than to stick with what's practical. My in-laws bought our kids an expensive drone that got used once and has spent the rest of its time occupying a shelf in our storage room; a generous gift, but not a practical one.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

 
The batteries that come with the cheap drone are not great but you can get much better batteries for them. Buddy of mine has the standard $100-150 drone. He bought a 3-4 pack of batteries for it on Amazon that have 2-3 times the capacity. We have dicked around with it for 30+ minutes on a single battery, and he has 3 more charged so the battery life really isn't a huge drawback. Don't believe he spent much on the batteries either.

It is fun to play around with for 30-60 minutes. Hard to control, but pretty resilient against crashes.

Thanks all - that is good feedback.

The mrs wanted to get me one, but didn't want to spend £1000 on a DJI, just for a fad.

So she bought this instead: http://www.droneexaminer.com/...heerson-cx-20-review - all for approx £250.

Great little drone, massively programmable and very flexible. You'll need to add a camera, but this can be done with an existing cam or a cheap chinese knockoff.

The first time I flew it I lost a prop and the thing went tumbling. Thanks to Amazon Prime I was back up and flying the next day, and also bought the prop-guards and two spare batteries.

My kids are interested, but more from a playing-with-it angle than being interested in the tech. The same intro into Sphero - play first, then learn the tech that drives it.

My son (9yo) can competently fly it, so I expect your 10yo should be fine. My 6yo girl needs a bit of help, but about 75% of the way there to flying it alone. Usually a case of 'stay away from his garden' and 'don't go too far'.

Just bought this one https://www.hubsanus.com/shop/h502e.html along with a nicer one for my niece from the same company. One of the reason I got these is the 20 minute flight time. They have gotten good reviews and mine should be here on monday.

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Jim

**Note above poster works for a retailer selling bikes and related gear*

How have you liked your drone?
I broke down and got the DJI Phantom 3 Pro yesterday. Still going through setup so it hasn't gotten off the ground yet. Their instructions are a bit scattered so it has taken longer than I thought it would.

I got the mavic pro a few months back. The weather has prevented me from flying as much as I want but when I have played with it, I love it. It's responsiveness and camera clarity is amazing.

Do you have a dog? Then yes!!! :-)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMHTDz6A-TA/?taken-by=ready4launch

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Gnothi Seauton.

Hahaha! That is awesome!

Love it so far, enough that I will probably get a DJI mavic when the weather gets better. It's remarkably stable and shoots halfway decent video. I'm still a rookie flyer so I want to have more time on it before getting something nicer.

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Jim

**Note above poster works for a retailer selling bikes and related gear*