FatShark HDO2 overview vs ev100

[ched]

So Santa brought me some HDO2 to replace my eachines ev100. WOW     
The image is huge and so bright I almost need sun glasses 
Just powered on a quad and the BetaFlight OSD was set for ev100 now in the HDO2 there is extra image top and bottom that was just not displayed on the ev100!

The fan is slightly noisier than the ev100 but that is just in a silent living room, I don't expect to notice it outdoors.

One negative is that when I move them up on my head to change battery the lenses touch my forehead! So it leaves a smudge!!! I will have to work out how to avoid that.

The focus is great (my prescription is about -2.75) and the IPD enables me to get the picture suitable for both eyes, in ev100 I had a bit of corner missing on right eye and bit of lack of focus on right eye in bottom corner that I could never get right. The HDO2 I can get full image, no corners missing and very good focus across the entire screen.

I had been a bit concerned that some of the US reviewers were having their eyelashes touch the lenses. When mine arrived they had an extra foam faceplate in that is 2mm thicker and is perfect. My eyelashes did slightly touch the lenses not enough to annoy but just slightly but thicker foam is perfect.

I bought the TureD-X module as it's reviews were just slightly worse than the RapidFire but it was £90 cheaper!!!! Not really tried it yet in the field but menus seem easy and FW update from 1.1 to 1.3 was very easy just by using the app on phone.

I also bought the Menace RC goggle antenna pack which is good and even comes with the finger spinners to tighten the connections. It didn't come with a 45 degree sma adapter to point the micro patch in a more forward direction. Without it the 2 spinners on the sma won't actually tighten down. So I had to remove 1 spinner!

I will have to get a 45 degree adapter!

I am very impressed with the HDO2 the image is superb. I plugged into laptop and watched some 1080 on youtube just to see quality. Very nice, had to turn saturation way down as colours were way too bright but very good contrast and deep deep blacks.

Hope you all had a Great Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

[apollo7]

Nice..........maybe one day i will find goggles i get on with

[SquireFPV]

Hi Ched thanks for your post. I currently have the ev100s and I'm really interested in upgrading to the fatshark hdo2 but have been slightly confused with the dji hype

[ched]

Hi Ched thanks for your post. I currently have the ev100s and I'm really interested in upgrading to the fatshark hdo2 but have been slightly confused with the dji hype

Re the DJI digital hype. I am currently only flying sub 250 gms so the DJI system isn't really suitable. That said I also don't really like DJIs methodology. While their stuff is generally good quality and works well they do have some iffy business practices like their software updates etc.
I do wear glasses which is probably why I have stuck with the ev100 for so long. When the  HDO2 were announced I was attracted by the diopter adjustments plus bigger screen and the OLED. Plus it was financially a good time to get authorisation for the purchase and Christmas was coming :-) After they said they were just shipping to USA due to import duty changes on 15th Dec, I thought I would have to wait till Jan, then quacopters.co.uk emailed to say they had stock on Monday!!! :-) I wouldn't pre order as you never know who gets them first.

As for digital I am hoping that someone, maybe Fatshark, will bring out a digital module like the ByteFrost but without the display. The problem is Fatsharks don't, as far as I know, have a digital input within the module connector. HDO2 do have a mini hdmi input, so that could be used. Hopefully within the next year we will see a decent, light weight, digital vtx and an add on module for the Fatsharks.

A bit more of my impressions:

The hdo2 = 206gms and ev100 = 150gms (about) so the HDO2 are a little heavier and sightly larger (thicker front to back and a little higher).

I used the thicker foam (first batches only come with the thin one) and removed the wedges and I get no light leakage at all.
One thing that is a little annoying is when I raise the goggles to my forehead to change quad batteries the lenses touch my forehead and leave marks on the lenses! Not quite sure yet how to sort that.
The other thing is I do wish the battery holder on the side of the strap was at the rear as it sits right on my ear, that said same as ev100.

If you don't need diopters then I would look at the HDO as they are down to £340 on quadcopters.co.uk.

[ched]

First flying session today WOW. So same quads R349 (RunCam Micro Swift) and my X120 (Runcam Nano 2) as I have been flying.
The image is so big and bright it's stunning. It was 3pm so sun starting to get very low and the images were great nice and bright so very easy to see. I could also see lots of things that I had not realised I was missing!!!! The field I use is a College football field and it has catch nets at each end, while in the ev100 I can see the green support posts I couldn't see the green netting. With the HDO2 I can see the squares of the netting!!!! Also I could actually see what cars were passing near by, previously they were just coloured blobs, now I can actually see what they are, vans cars, 4x4 etc. 
Not checked the dvr yet as I'm recovering from the cold.....

[ched]

I have had a bit more chance to play with the HDO2 I am loving the image and the reception. Looking at the dvr, well surprisingly it's not as good as the ev100!!!! There appears to be no way to automatically cut the recordings into 5 min chunks and the resolution is a little lower than the ev100 at max resolution.
The plus points are that you can set it to auto record so I never forget to record, what you see on the goggles is what is recorded (ev100 used to cut off a little).
One thing I have learned is that if it's recording and you switch from a ntsc camera to a pal camera it doesn't like it. You lose colour and the frame is split so bottom 30% is at top of frame. Stopping recording then restarting fixes that but it's something to be aware off.
I do love the goggles the picture is so good, I can now see the difference between cameras. The Emax Freestyle doesn't have a good camera and you can see that in the goggles. I can also see quite a difference between a RunCam Swift micro 2 and a RunCam Nano2, the micro is quite noticeably better. I never saw a difference in the ev100!!!!
The one slight annoyance is getting the microsd card out of the hdo2. I have to use tweezers!!! which is a bit annoying. I tried to use the spring to eject the card but it flew out into a box full of paperwork never to be seen again!!! Lesson learned...

[sh0wtime]

i bought the original HDO's & didn't use them 
I wish i'd waited for the 2's, especially as the ipd adjustment on the HDO's doesn't quite go wide enough for me. plus i have a slightly bent nose from 6 full seasons of senior Ice Hockey without a facegaurd that pushes the goggles over to the right slightly.
this means the bottom left corner of the display is unreadable
you know, the important corner