How important is multicopter balance?

[Emowillcox]

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion about how important balance is on a mutlicopter? I know on a model airplane its very important to have the balance correct in order to make the plane fly right. I have done some tests making the multicopter nose heavy or putting the weight to the back. The FC seemed to correct for the balance and allow it to fly.
Recently I was flying my Naza with a new camera mount that put the camera out front and made the multicopter nose heavy. The naza flew fine for several flights, but then last week it was coming down and started to wobble. Then it rolled on me and dropped about 10 feet before it leveled off and landed in top of a tree. This is the second time my gaza has done this. It appears to start to wobble while descending then the FC tries to level it off and it rolls. First I noticed different props seem to effect how it descends and second I am starting to thinking maybe its related to the balance.
Just wondering if anyone has any opinions or experience with these flight characteristics. Thanks

 

[kloner]

it is the difference between making 2 of your motors do all the work and all 4 getting an even load so they draw the same power and so they can all catch the corner there watching better

with MR's in forward or fast forward flight it's all about vertical cg, hovering, center cg horizontaly

 

[oolotronic]

CG and Battery Use

it is the difference between making 2 of your motors do all the work and all 4 getting an even load so they draw the same power and so they can all catch the corner there watching better

with MR's in forward or fast forward flight it's all about vertical cg, hovering, center cg horizontaly

I absolutely agree, bad CG is bad for your motors. I also noticed, a significant drop in battery life, when my CG was off. I'm guessing it's from the motors doing extra work.

 

[Emowillcox]

HI Kloner and OOlo that does make sense... I was just surprised my rig flipped and felt like it was the FC trying to level off my rig.
Kind of felt like the flip or problem might have been magnified by the machine being out of balance.