Whats the word on Parrot drones??

flyingfool · Sep 3, 2022

Anyone with experience with the Parrot drones on here? thinking about jumping ship, I am put off with DJI crap, and Autel is right behind them.. any other brands worth looking at?

Jagerbomb52 · Sep 3, 2022

Stay away from Parrot as far as you can. They have ZERO support in North America for consumer drones.

flyingfool · Sep 3, 2022

how about upair's phantom knock-off??

imcool · Sep 3, 2022

flyingfool said:
Anyone with experience with the Parrot drones on here? thinking about jumping ship, I am put off with DJI crap, and Autel is right behind them.. any other brands worth looking at?

i think parrot drone price is 4400usd, :O

Jagerbomb52 · Sep 3, 2022

The new Parrot AI drone I know of a few people who bought them. $5000 bucks and they do work great but when they have problems they cannot get support as Parrot has no support in North America. So basically you just bought a $5000 dollar door stop. Like I said stay away from them until they get their act together. Un believable they actually have a US military contract LOL

flyingfool · Sep 3, 2022

I'm looking for a $200-300 door stop that shoots 2k video, and has a range of 2 miles. this is all i want and need

Jagerbomb52 · Sep 3, 2022

The standard Parrot Anafi would be your best option although going 2 miles is not a sure thing. I have two Anafi's and where I live I have no interference at all but going 2 miles is really pushing it for connection. I might get a good 1.5 miles on a good day. Nice part about the Anafi if you use waypoints even if you lose connection it will complete the flight plan and then return to home. Its not a bad drone but I still like my Air 2S better.

GFields · Sep 4, 2022

You might consider looking at the Classifieds of our Parrot Pilots forum.

TN Drone Services · Sep 5, 2022

We had a shoot at an international airport. I personally brought a Mavic 2 Pro and a Parrot Anafi as a backup (I had to fly to get to the jobsite and had to also bring a gimbal and DSLR).
Even with FAA approval and a DJI unlock, DJI wouldn't let me take off. Plan B. I put the Mavic back in its case and bring out the Anafi. I shoot the job and everyone is happy (aerospace company, logistics company, and airport). My takeaway was that this was the second job where DJI refused to let me take off even with them issuing an unlock. Therefore, DJI is no longer in our arsenal. Autel replaced them as our go to drones, and Parrot is the backup.

Curious as to how the footage turned out? Here's what I was able to capture with the Anafi (and DSLR) on that job:

Fox Fader · Sep 10, 2022

I still fly my Anafi. Connection sux in urban but its still the best for flying a camera drone fpv.

geekdaddy · Sep 10, 2022

flyingfool said:
Anyone with experience with the Parrot drones on here? thinking about jumping ship, I am put off with DJI crap, and Autel is right behind them.. any other brands worth looking at?

The Anafi is a small, quiet, and capable drone that shoots good video -- especially considering that It was released several years ago. It doesn't have the range of DJI and Autel drones. YMMV, but areas with little interference you can likely go beyond VLOS, but in urban areas several folks have complained of very short range in some cases. Anafi has no obstacle avoidance, although remarkably good wind resistance despite it's small size/weight.

Felix the Cat · Sep 17, 2022

Flown the ANAFI and I was very impressed with the camera. Even more impressed with the fact that the gimbal can sweep through a full 180 degree arc. Overall: the look of the thing screams "cheap plastic": there's absolutely no obstacle avoidance and the micro SD card bay is a nightmare for anyone with fingers of butter or fists of ham (that'll be me, then) but it's stable, handles well and the 21mp stills are fantastic.

flyingfool · Sep 17, 2022

sounds interesting, I don't need Obstacle avoidance, and cheap plastic is probably for lightweight, all SD cards are a pain. but can the app work on older phones? this is one issue I have with Autel sky, the app doesn't work on any of my old phones.

Felix the Cat · Sep 17, 2022

flyingfool said:
sounds interesting, I don't need Obstacle avoidance, and cheap plastic is probably for lightweight, all SD cards are a pain. but can the app work on older phones? this is one issue I have with Autel sky, the app doesn't work on any of my old phones.

it's a 2018 drone - so I would expect that it would work like a dream with the phones that the SKY app sneered at. If it wasn't for the fact that the ANAFI is going to be lumped into the A4/obsolete category in Europe and Britain: I wouldn't think twice about buying one. It's perfect for the kind of work I do.

Wargamingdrone · Sep 18, 2022

flyingfool said:
Anyone with experience with the Parrot drones on here? thinking about jumping ship, I am put off with DJI crap, and Autel is right behind them.. any other brands worth looking at?

Let's face it all support stinks like rotting eggs.
I have every kind of drone. The Autel has the best video imo. My Parrot Anafi is great but range is very limited. It's a better deal than DJI but any now are used or refurbished which is fine.
DJI is a good drone but the geofencing stinks. They even limit your hight when you can fly.... so, yeah I'll take a Parrot over DJI.
Potensic makes a cheap drone that is ok (Dreamer Pro). But image is nowhere as good or smooth. It's workable however.
My favorites are Autel Evo 2 followed by Autel EVO 1, Parrot Anafi, Autel Nano, Potensic Dreamer Pro, then DJI in that order. If DJI drops geofencing it would push some models ahead of Parrot but not all.

Racharg · Oct 12, 2022

I concur with the sentiment to stay away from Parrot, I have the Anafi Thermal and only use it where I need to look up, or where I need to hand launch. As others have mentioned, the urban range is awful and the controller is the worst of any I have tried. The SD card tray is poorly designed and I leave it in, using a USB cable to get data off of it.

Wargamingdrone · Oct 14, 2022

Racharg said:
I concur with the sentiment to stay away from Parrot, I have the Anafi Thermal and only use it where I need to look up, or where I need to hand launch. As others have mentioned, the urban range is awful and the controller is the worst of any I have tried. The SD card tray is poorly designed and I leave it in, using a USB cable to get data off of it.

Actually that SD card reader has been around forever and is something you can fix. If a push type one goes bad you get to buy a motherboard. So, depends how long you've been around.
Parrot makes a stable drone but it's not as beefy as an Autel 1 or 2. The signal is very limited due to being designed for LOS. If you fly an EVO you won't like Parrot in general. Totally different feel. I like them both depending on applications. I can squeeze a Parrot in a tight spot where my Autel will not work.