Parrot has a new drone on the market, the ANAFI, a 4K quadcopter offering 25 minutes of flight.
Parrot says its engineers designed ANAFI for more than two years in Paris; it went into a “start-up mode” by mobilizing the entire company for the new product. ANAFI, which can be pre-ordered today, will be in stores beginning July 1 at a price of $699 in select consumer electronics retailers, on Amazon.com and on Parrot.com.
Parrot says it took into account user feedback to meet four essential needs: image quality, flight performance, foldability, and ease of use of software and piloting.
Image Quality
ANAFI uses a Sony IMX230 sensor and an Ambarella video processor to produce 4K HDR (30fps) video and 21MP photos. Furthermore, the optics specially developed for ANAFI withstand temperatures from 14 degrees F to 104 degrees F, Parrot notes.
ANAFI is equipped with a lossless zoom of 1.4x in 4K and 2.8x in full HD (1080p). It is also possible to zoom 3x in digital zoom. Users can modify settings to adjust resolution, photo format, shutter speed, white balance, exposure value and rendering. Lastly, the gimbal allows a vertical tilt of 180 degrees, enabling low-angle shots.
Flight Performance
The FreeFlight 6 application offers two manual control modes: film and sport. In sport mode, ANAFI achieves peak speeds of 33 mph and withstands winds of 31 mph. Users can customize settings such as the incline of the drone, its rotation speed and the speed of the camera tilt.
Parrot says the drone features a polymer lithium battery optimized to obtain the best power density in a small volume and a high rate of discharge, which allows ANAFI to achieve a 25-minute flight time. The ANAFI battery continuously monitors its charge level (regardless of the temperature and aging of the cell). During a flight, ANAFI evaluates the load level and can return to its take-off position if needed. The battery also has an integrated charger, compatible with the latest USB standard (USB-C) and can thus be charged via a phone charger, powerbank or laptop.
In addition, each foot of ANAFI is equipped with a dual-band antenna (2.4GHz and 5GHz) to ensure an optimal connection with the remote control, the Parrot Skycontroller 3, regardless of the orientation of the drone. This omnidirectional transmission system uses WiFi-compliant protocols developed by Parrot. ANAFI constantly monitors its WiFi environment in order to switch to another channel when the one it uses is too crowded; this guarantees optimal spectrum utilization performance and allows ANAFI to fly up to 2.48 miles, says Parrot.
Foldability
At 11.2 ounces (approximately 0.7 lbs.) – thanks to an assembly of carbon fiber filled with hollow glass microbeads – ANAFI features four arms that can fold and unfold in less than three seconds, according to Parrot. In addition, the Parrot Skycontroller 3 unfolds immediately and automatically connects to ANAFI. (Comparatively, DJI’s $799 Mavic Air Drone, which also features a 4K camera and foldable design, weighs in at just under 1 lb. and offers a flight time of 21 minutes.)
Ease of Use
Parrot developed the FreeFlight 6 application for ANAFI. Beginners have access to automatic control modes, such as SmartDronies or CineShots, and professional photographers can select or customize camera settings. ANAFI offers automatic control modes: Smart Dronies, Cameraman mode and Follow Me, which use a neural network to reevaluate the target track for each image.
Furthermore, the FreeFlight 6 application and the Skycontroller3 long-range remote control were jointly developed, says Parrot. The interaction between the two allows users to control the movement of the gimbal and the zoom with two dedicated keys and change the settings directly on the smartphone screen.
