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Looking for a high-quality camera drone for capturing stunning visuals and videos with? You might have to search far and wide to find the right drone for a consumer-friendly price.
I’ve got just the thing for you so you don’t have to scour the internet for finding a good camera drone.
The Parrot Anafi 4K is an excellent choice for you if you’re thinking of getting 4K recording quality for an affordable price.
The Parrot Anafi 4K drone is one of the best and most affordable 4K camera drones launched in 2018 in competition specially to the DJI Mavic Air. From the image quality to stabilization along with flight controls and everything in between, the Anafi 4K is a drone with great potential with a few lacking points.
You might be wondering, what makes the Parrot Anafi 4K drone such a great camera drone? Well, that’s exactly what I’m here to tell you.
In this article, I’m going to provide you a complete review of the Anafi 4K drone along with its features, flight, specs and pros and cons.
So, sit back, relax, and read this article till the end if you want to know everything about this drone.
About Parrot:
Parrot is a French Consumer Electronics Company which was founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux. Based in Paris, France, Parrot has established quite a popularity in the drone manufacturing industry in the past couple of decades.
With a working force of around 500 to 1000 hard-working and dedicated people, Parrot is known as one of the best drone manufacturing companies in the world competing with DJI on the international level.
The innovative team of Parrot is known for creating new technological hardware and software breakthroughs in their drones and that too for incredibly good prices for customers.
This is why Parrot is slowly becoming one of the best consumer electronics company internationally because of the innovation and high-quality of their products, especially drones.
Parrot Anafi 4K Drone In-depth review:
The Anafi 4K drone is a compact and perfectly designed camera drone which records stunning videos at 4K along with taking amazing stills and incredible pictures at 21MP.
In my opinion, at such a low price range, the Anafi 4K drone is simply one of the best drones in the market. Whether you’re a professional cinematographer or an aspiring drone pilot, this drone will be a great pick for you.
What’s in the box?
The packaging of the drone is very compact and decent. You’re going to get all the essentials in the box.
Let’s take a look at all the equipment and tools you’re going to receive inside the box of the Anafi 4K drone.
- Drone – The Anafi 4K drone with Smart Battery
- Remote Controller – The Parrot Skycontroller 3.
- USB Type-c Cable – One charging cable type-c.
- Memory Card – 16 GB Micro-SD card for recordings.
- Drone Case – A handy and compact drone case.
- Extra Props – 8 x extra propellers.
- Screwdriver – 1
Features and Specs of Parrot Anafi 4K:
The Parrot Anafi 4K is an exceptional drone for a decent price. It gives other flagship drones a run for their money quite well. In terms of specs and features, the Anafi 4K is also ahead of drones with the same price tag.
Let’s take a look at the best of features and specs that the Parrot Anafi 4K drone comes equipped with.
Camera Quality and Zoom:
The most important thing when it comes to camera drones is, you guessed it – the camera.
In the Parrot Anafi 4K, you’re going to get an incredibly high-quality camera that records videos in 4K HDR resolution at 30fps with the lossless zoom lens.
If you’re thinking about taking amazing pictures and stills, you’re set with the amazing 21MP picture camera that the Anafi 4K comes with. So, all your professional photography needs are going to be fulfilled.
The camera that the Anafi 4K drone utilizes allows pilots to zoom three times the normal footage with the 3x Zoom availability which makes this drone a really great far away footage recorder.
With all this and the 180 degree tilt option that the camera comes with, the overall camera quality and zoom availability in the Parrot Anafi 4K drone is really great.
Drone Speed:
When it comes to aerial camera recordings and videography in motion, many camera drones lack with a very small speed. This isn’t an issue with the Parrot Anafi 4K drone.
It comes with a top-speed of around 33 miles per hour which is good enough to capture high=quality pictures and videos in motion. This is especially great for professional cinematography.
Flight Time:
The Parrot Anafi 4K is an incredible camera drone if we’re talking about lasting time and battery. With the smart battery that it has, you can expect flight times of around 25 minutes.
This is especially great for shooting videos which take time while recording. All you need to do is charge the drone completely using the type-c charging cable and you’re going to be set for a long time of drone flight.
Flight Range:
If you’re thinking of taking high-quality far away shots and recording aerial videos from huge distances, you’re definitely going to love this drone by Parrot because of its flight range.
With a flight range of around 4 kilometers, you can fly this drone as far as you’d want but make sure you keep it within your line of sight in order to control it appropriately.
Design and Control:
Design-wise it is truly one of the best camera drones in the market in this low price range.
The design of this particular model of Anafi is simply amazing. It is sleek-looking, sharp and an overall beautiful drone.
Here we are talking about quadcopter drone which comes in a very compact form with rubber padded feet.
The design and the comfort of the controller that comes with the Anafi 4K drone is pretty great. There’s a lot of promise in the Skycontroller 3.
With features like RTH, LED indicator, Optics reset, Tilt triggers, Shutter Button and much more, the Skycontroller 3 is the perfect companion for your Parrot Anafi 4K drone.
How to Fly Parrot Anafi 4K Drone?
If you’ve purchased the Anafi 4K drone and you’re wondering how to fly it and take beautiful shots like a pro, don’t worry at all, you’re in the right place. I’ve prepared a complete step by step flying guide for your Anafi 4K drone.
Step 1: Charge the Battery-
The first step after taking the drone out of the box is to charge the battery of the drone.
Parrot Anafi 4K drone comes with a smart battery that can be portably charged.
You can use the type-c cable to charge the battery of the drone. Once completely charged, you can expect a flight time of around 25 minutes, which is great for all kinds of drone piloting.
Step 2: Take out the Drone Arms-
The drone is an incredibly lightweight and slim in design. Out of the box it comes in a compact form with the arms of the drone bent in to the frame of the Anafi 4k drone.
What you need to do is take each of the four arms out in order to reveal the full size of the drone.
Once you do this, you can plug in the smart battery and you’re one step closer to flying the drone.
Step 3: Connect the Transmitter to the Phone-
Now is the time to take out the transmitter. We’ve already talked about how comfy and well-designed the Skycontroller 3 actually is. So, we’re going to connect it to the phone in this step.
A cool design feature is to take the smartphone holder out and raise the antenna to start the controller. Then you can place the smartphone within the holder and start the process of connection.
You’re going to use the USB type-c cable to connect the smartphone to the transmitter in order to fully control the drone. After this step, you’re good to go to fly the Anafi 4K drone.
Step 4: Use FreeFlight 6 App and Fly Your Anafi 4K Drone-
Install the Freeflight 6 application on your phone. You can manipulate many options of the camera and the controller using this application. It is now time to fly the drone.
Use the analog sticks to fly the drone and the capture and zoom buttons on the top of the controller to control the camera. You can also tilt the camera with the Tilt trigger and do many other things with the Skycontroller 3.
Once you get the hang of this drone, you’re going to be able to take stunning shots and record amazingly beautiful videos to your heart’s content. So, go crazy with creativity with the Parrot Anafi 4K drone.
Pros and Cons of Parrot Anafi 4k:
We know everything we need to about the features and the flight of this drone, but whats good and bad in it?
That’s the last point that you’re going to need to know before you can make your buying decision.
Let’s take a look at both the pros and the cons of the Parrot Anafi 4K drone in order to get a better view of the overall performance.
Pros:
Compactness –
When it comes to compactness, the Anafi 4K is truly a masterpiece. With the foldable drone arms, Parrot has done an impressive job making it compact and lightweight in design.
Great Price –
The price of the Anafi 4K HDR drone is also really great. It comes at a significantly lower price than many drones it competes with.
High-quality Recordings –
The 4K camera is exquisite at taking high-quality pictures and recording epic videos.
Easy to Use –
You’re going to face little to no difficulty flying this drone, it’s fairly easy to use and great for beginner drone flyers.
Cons:
Less Stability –
When it comes to image stability, the drone lacks in comparison to some of the other competing camera drones.
No Obstacle Avoidance –
There’s no smart obstacle avoidance mechanisms and algorithms built into this drone which is quite a bummer.
No built-in LCD –
You’re going to require an external smartphone in order to get the live feed of the drone camera because the controller doesn’t come with a built-in LCD.
Flimsy –
The design of the drone is pretty lightweight and good looking but one thing that it lacks is robustness. It is flimsy and feels not that great when it comes to build quality in comparison to other drones.
Is it worth it?
Yes, it is definitely worth the price. The drone comes with a powerful and high-quality zoom lens, but also stunning 4K HDR capture quality and great flight features and benefits for a drone of such a mediocre price.
The drone is easy to control and great for beginners who’re just starting out with drone flying. The app isn’t complex and the controls are pretty much self-explanatory which makes the overall flight experience easy.
What is The Best Alternative to Parrot Anafi?
If you’re looking for a drone that outperforms the Parrot Anafi 4K providing much more variety and features, then you should definitely go for the DJI Mavic Air 2. It is certainly a great choice for photographers and videographers.
The Mavic Air 2 has an overall steadier and better stabilization when it comes to the camera. It also has Anafi beat when it comes to drone speed. Basically, having the same specs but a few key wins over the Anafi 4K drone.
However, it is going to cost quite more than the Anafi 4K drone depends on availability. Still, you will get an amazing performance boost in comparison to the Parrot Anafi 4K drone.
Conclusion:
Before the Anafi 4K drone, there was truly no competition for the drone giant DJI in the international scene. But with the unveiling of this drone, Parrot are surely catching up.
A great camera with amazing stability and a good price tag, makes Anafi 4K drone a really great option. Keeping in mind DJI Mini 2 is also around and cheaper than Parrot Anafi.
So, in conclusion, if you’re looking for a cheap and good-quality 4K HDR drone, the Anafi 4K is an amazing option and you’re definitely going to have a great time flying around and taking aesthetic shots and videos with it professionally.
Full Review of DJI Mini 2 here.
HAPPY FLYING!!
