Addressing common comments: 1) No, I wasn't paid by Parrot. I bought the drone off-the-shelf. We fully disclose all sponsorships. If it was sponsored, they certainly wouldn't have wanted me to compare it to a 90's Yugo. 2) It seems I'm a lousy dancer. OK, but that dance has generally worked for me. 3) Some people think the railing is the cause of the calibration errors... OK, maybe. It's not that close, and it's not that substantial. I've launched from that spot with every drone I've ever owned and haven't had issues in the past. I wasn't exactly taking off from the hood of a car. It didn't cause any problems for the Parrot. So, if you're a DJI fan and you're looking for a reason to dismiss the review, take comfort in my imperfect dance. I was clear in the video that my commentary wasn't based on that one specific example, but rather on years of experience in a wide variety of scenarios.
i have the mavic air, i can definitely agree with the points made by you. the compass calibration is a total nightmare to deal with and it is a constant issue for me. DJI is the big player inb the game and with that comes a built in bias when dealing with reviews and comparison i find. i think that parrot can carve out a decent chunk of the market if they offer drones that have features like zoom, 180 degree viewing angles etc. only point i disagree with is the usb charging being a plus. the interchangeable batteries on the mavic air can effectively give you about 45-50 minutes of flight time which is a huge deal.
LOL don't listen to the DJI faithful. I too own several DJI drones and they are not perfection. Nor are the apps which almost always feel like they are in Beta and being fixed and broken many times a year. This is a cool drone. Thanks for the unbiased review. Subscribed and I bought your books. You do great work.
Won't make me switch from the Mavic that I already have but it's very good to see some actual competition in the drone market! I really hope Parrot keeps improving their products so maybe one day I will get one of their drones :)
Parrot was the first one to ever mass produce and market a Drone, remember the AR.Drone? that was pretty impressive at the time, then DJI came and Parrot was done, is good to see Parrot coming back with a product that actually could compete with DJI
Compares two drones in the same price range. Gets 100 comments from idiots saying "The $1500 Mavic 2 Pro something something". Even the Mavic 2 Pro can't look up, & only has digital zoom. The Mavic 2 Pro Zoom is also only digital zoom, & only has a 12MP sensor. The Anafi's sensor is 21MP. I bought an Anafi Extended, instead of an Air. Well worth the price. I actually look for things to use the zoom & gimbal tilt on, just because I can. By the way, Parrot just received $11 million from the US Defense Department, for military scout drone research. Parrot ain't going anywhere but up.
Flew a Mavic Air, Spark, and Pro at the beaches in SC recently. The most annoying and most often complained about was the Mavic Air. Yeah that drone is incredibly noisy. THis Anafi looks really cool. So glad DJI has competition and not just cheap toy wannabes. Yuneec needs to make their version next, but something bigger than the Mantis.
It's wise to be courteous and considerate to beachgoers, guests there etc. Not everyone flies a drone, not everyone wants one flown near them. The more noticeable the prop noise it to those more private individuals, they more they will report the drone user, or simply make it known they don't like it near them. Anafi and MP are pretty quiet for the most part, so if you fly those it can be less of an obvious attention getter other that kids yelling "cool !! a drone" Vacationers are really going to like this drone. I agree with Tony 100% here. Most others say DJI beats the crap out of this drone, but there is a lot of bias, and they often do not consider the average user. Just like the average user of DSLR's will not jump at $1500 cameras and buy the $450 dslr with 2-3 kit lenses and do a great job in auto modes and have great pics of their event. Drone bans and limits are being posted at many beaches these days. For one, too many people flying over crowds. That is dangerous. If more flew away from crowds and away from the buildings and boardwalks it would have been better. One crash into a balcony like recently at Ocean City can really change the drone permissions. One incident of a MP crashing into a 12 th floor balcony convinced the area to ban drones there. That was one of the last places free to fly. Most others in resort or vacation areas have drone bans posted.
The Skydio is used to photograph moving subjects, is better at this than the Mavic. But this is only a small part of the demand. Most people buy drones to take pictures of static scenes..
Tony , really good job in calling attention to Anafi as a good alternative to DJI. I first bought the DJI Mavic Air and have frequent frustration with calibration (i am doing it right) and NFZ blocking, as well as required reading notices in the middle of preflight preparation. The noise really bothered me as well. So when Anafi came out, I bought it and have been much happier with it than the Air. Didn't know you could hand launch and catch until I saw you doing it. So I tried it and it works much better than Mavic Air hand launch and catch. Once you lift up the Anafi, it knows and goes into handlaunch mode. Best way to hand catch? Bring anafi to 1-2 feet above your head, place hand a foot below and click landing button. It will simply land onto your hand. Do not grab. In the beginning, once in awhile Anafi will drift but now it doesn't so perhaps their has been some upgrading. I now also see english feet measurements instead of meters. As a DIY, I'd like to open the battery. There are 2 batteries in there, so if you remove one it's possible this Anafi drone is below 250 grams. Also if those batteries are any standard types such as 16550, we can make our extra battery and charging set and swap the batteries cylinders themselves. I'm just speculating here. Overall, the advantages of Anafi over Mavic Air has grown on me over time.
Berri Jam Frankly, based on the review and all the comments, I wouldn't get either. I don't mind waiting a few more years till there are more and more-reliable options on the market.
@@simonwalter7142 You will never stop waiting: there's always newer tech on the horizon. And if you can wait several years, you clearly don't have a need or desire to shoot video, so why get one at all?
I've had my (refurbished) Mavic Pro for almost a year now and have had no notable problems with it. I calibrated the compass and optical sensors once (correctly) and never had to calibrate again. The Mavic's range is measured in km not m. I can sit in my car and fly behind myself 2 km and still have HD video (sometimes I like to not be present when I film something). The Mavic Pro's camera can tilt up and the props do not get in the video. Also, The mavic pro has digital zoom. You can literally program it to a knob. Here he shows the Mavic air not keeping up with the boat, but both the air and pro will go 40mph with or against wind. Also note the Mavic has accurate RTL within 6 inches. The Mavic also has 3 pages of intelligent flight modes making pretty much any shot automatic if you so choose. If you want a good travel drone pick up a Mavic Pro. It's the same price as the Anafi and frankly much more versatile and better in general. The only down side to DJI products is the app. It's pretty terrible. Thankfully for 30$ you can pick up Litchi from the app store to solve all your problems.
I had to return two DJI drones. One was a Mavic Air with a faulty WiFi receiver, and the other was a Mavic Pro Platinum with a defective compass; it malfunctioned in flight, but recovered a couple seconds later.. I finally managed to get a Mavic Air that's not a lemon, which I intend to keep and use within its limitations. Good review on the Parrot Anafi, by the way.
The great thing about your channel is the ability to watch older videos and still come away with not only being entertained, but becoming more knowledgeable. Thank you sir!
Tony & Chelsea Northrup I’m in the UK and things are still okay regarding the ability to fly drones where you want (within reason) I just felt your previous video was implying buying one was now more a no than a yes.
Robert Few I think he was saying you can’t fly a Dji product because of the NFZ , the Anahi does not has that problem that’s why I have one and doumped dji
Yeah I hate that, your damaging your footage from the start. It would be warped and you’d have to crop most of your frame out if you add any additional warp stabilization
Not when you realize the 21MP camera of the Parrot will have better resolution after electronic stabilization degradation than the shitty 12MP of the Air's camera. It might be worse than a gimbal, but its not worse than the Mavic Air. Parrot wins here.
@@JKolman1234 noooo. I can definitely see when the parrot falters in the stabilization. Especially in the trees. Mavic does not do this. If you want competition for DJI, you can forget about f'ing parrot. The real competition is the Autel Evo.
The rail guard wasn't preventing successfully calibration, the way in which he was rapidly and inconsistently rotating is why his calibration failed, and kept failing. Calibration should be slow, consistent movements in a rotation pattern, not abrupt and odd spinning.
It is so nice to have someone giving an honest opinion. spending my hard earned money on a product that I have no experience with is a big deal. Prior to seeing this video, I was considering the DJI products. The spark which I probably would have purchased was the same price (with the fly more package which I would have needed because of the short battery life). Yesterday I went and picked up the ANAFI and so far I am so happy that I did. 4K video, 25 min flight time on the battery, Quite a bit more options shooting in manual. I feel like I got a tool and not a toy. I don't feel like I had to sacrifice features because of my budget. Anyway, Tony Thank You for putting this information out there. Thank you for your honesty about sponsorships and your integrity.
Owning both of these drones I agree with you on just about every point both good and bad. The Air is beautiful and has some great features.... when it works, and in my experiences it often fails and leads to a lot of frustration. Since purchasing the Anafi I took it on a trip to Oahu and it performed flawlessly, it flew the first time every time and got the shots I wanted. The shortened range isn't really an issue for my practical uses but it I do sometimes miss the safety net of obstacle avoidance. I also learned to wait for the green GPS lock before taking off, must have missed that part in the manual my first read through 😳. I also came to prefer the Anafi form factor while hiking around the island. I slip my camera bag strap through the elastic bands on the case, this actually frees up some space in the bag and made accessing the Anafi easier. I also carried around a quick charge 3.0 power pack to keep the batteries topped off in between flights and never missed a flight opportunity. For now the Anafi is far and away my preferred travel drone given how much quieter it is and the fact that it just plain works when I need it to.
Yeah, we're in Norway now, and I just now figured out to wait for the green GPS. I wish the software had the option to not take off without GPS. I took off high in the mountains without a GPS lock and it just took off in a random direction, hundreds of feet away. Pure luck that it didn't slam into the side of a mountain.
Is it actually that much quieter? I had an air for a couple weeks last year and I liked it, but it was too expensive to keep and the noise was so intrusive to the people nearby walking dogs etc where I would take it to fly!
Finally an honest comparison. Thanks Tony. Fyi on the range, it will say move the drone closer however my friend kept going and turned the Anafi around at 11, 000 feet, 2.1 miles. The Anafi is the real deal!
Hi Tony, I have both Mavic Air and Anafi got recently. I prefer Anafi: I am so annoyed by DJI Air for the following reasons: Every time need to do compass calibration, very weak in keeping the connection properly, noise is too much, sport mode/against wind props are into the video, battery lasts no so long. The only good things of Air is the gimbal of 3 axis. The Air has a really a problem with the engeniring of the compass, as is a single compass and not redundant as the Mavic pro. What I don't like of Anafi: I would prefer to have the take off and landing as the DJI, so start the engine like a combination of inner stick movement, but is ok. Would be super super smart if Parrot would manage to keep weight at 250gs, this for traveling is much much better as in most Country is an assle free and no need registration. Great review as usual By the way.....sometimes is better not to have sensor rather than have. Sensor sometimes ruin your shooting, as stops sometimes as nonsense. The latest firmwares fix most of the initial problems initially had. So great Anafi.
A year has passed since this review and it was one of the reasons I bought the Anafi. Since then I've also acquired a Mavic 2 Pro and I've found are 2 major distinctions: weight and sensors. They both have their merits, and that brings me to this post with a question: I'll be traveling to Europe (Budapest and Spain) from the U.S. next summer and I'm considering which drone to bring: Being Part 107 certified I'll be taking all the other preparations and precautions into consideration, in regards to traveling and when and where I can fly. Anafi Pros: weight, USB charge-able batteries, 20mp sensor with optical & digital zoom Anafi Cons: no obstacle avoidance, gps reception/connection not as strong as Mavic's Mavic2 Pros: obstacle avoidance, stronger GPS system Mavic2 Cons: weight, no zoom, more valuable if lost/stolen Thanks for your consideration!
Travel light and carry less. The Anafi is a better "travel" drone. Besides that, you should not flight out of line of sight and the wifi connection on the Anafi is enough for that. Be careful flying a drone in Spain, it is forbidden almost every where and fines are hefty. I flew also in Budapest two years ago, but I think now drones (everywhere) are not so welcomed as then. Regulations have taken over and FAA certifications may not be legal in Europe (correct me if I am wrong).
@@jupersan Thanks for the heads-up on Spain, I've seen contradicting posts, I'll do more research- I hope they allow some flying within reason, or at least don't make me ship it back home.
Explain why the Anafi is displaying speed in M/s and distance in YARDS. That's annoying at best. And even metric users rarely use meters per second... they use kilometers per hour.
Hey look I'm into science and the metric system but when you grow up with MPH that's just how you think. I'd happily switch the US to metric if it were up to me.
Great review, but I want to make two distinctions: 1) Digital zoom is like cropping in during editing. Resolution will be lost. Optical zoom maintains resolution, which one of the Mavic 2 drones has. 2) Zooms don't allow you to control perspective, since perspective is based on from where you view something. Zooms tighten or widen your composition/framing.
There is bias towards the Anafi. Anafi pros: tilt up (biggest advantage and reason to buy IMO), digital zoom, better camera specs, USB battery charging, price (maybe, if you don't care for flight modes), lighter, longer flight time, less noisy Anafi cons: 2 axis gimbal, no sensors, longer charge times, cheap build quality, extra $ for flight modes (and fewer flight modes available), shorter range, less stable, less FPS in 4k shooting Ties: speed, camera footage quality (subjective) Anafi pros are highlighted and cons are dismissed
I would call it bias. It’s an opinion that he got from use. Unless you used both it would be unfair to criticise. I’m assuming when someone complains that a user favours a product more than the other. I assume they say something because it’s unfavouring the product they own.
Tony, what is your opinion on the Parrot Anafi today in 2022? - Please share it as your opinions as a trusted professional photographer in highly valued.
I just bought one a few days ago, what's to worry about it still beats most of the new model being released, anywhere close to it's price and higher. Just learn all about the battery and what you have to do to test it, maintain it and trust it.
I own both Parrot Anafi & DJI Mavic Pro. For me, both have a purpose. If it was my first drone, I would go with the Mavic Pro. But I do like the Anafi very much! Flight Plan / autonomous flight is much better with the Anafi!!
I will disagree - DJI has the most extensive software support available. IF you don't like DJI GO you can spend 20 bucks and purchase a completely different system to fly with. I use Litchi for programmed flights - it's amazing. DJI allows you to choose the flight control system you want to use. I don't know of another brand that allows that.
I use to be a Windows person. I work in IT and mainly support Windows. Years ago I said I would never switch to a Mac. Then I got curious, tried one out and love them all the time now. For years I was DJI Phantom owner. I also have videos of me using it here on my channel. There is no question how good they are however, I have a friend that had a drone by Parrot and it seemed like a toy to me. I thought I would never buy one. Last year someone stole my drones and only recently I decided to buy get another one. After seeing your video and others I decided to give it the Anafi a try and I love it! Keep an open mind and never say never. Love you and Chelsea's videos. Keep up the great work!
But everybody on UA-cam is saying go Pro or go home, so they appear to be photographic cognoscenti. You need to ask yourself how are you likely to use it and could you face losing a drone that costs as much as a Mavic 2.
@B Jiang That depends on what you are starting with and what you end up with. If you are recording in 1080 on a sensor that is bigger than 4k you can get useful zoom. I use an Anafi and a Mavic Pro so both can give real zoom at 1080, which is the resolution of my monitor. If you are already maxed out you haven't anywhere else to go. The best zoom is getting closer. The next best is optical. The third best is cropping in on a larger sensor. Most people are stuck with the fourth best, just concentrate a bit harder on that bit of the screen.
DJI be like: But lets only use digital zoom, and only a shitty 12MP camera compared to Parrot's 21MP optical zoom. Oh then lets charge twice the price... This video was comparing it to the Air jacknuts, same price range. Parrot FTW, obviously.
My two biggest issues/questions about the Anafi: 1. did the nonmechanical 3rd axis of the gimbal produce any noticeable artifacts in the video? The Bebop 2 "gimbal" was completely virtual and as a result not suitable for video capture. 2. Not really a question more of a concern, why won't Parrot develop a broadcast-type protocol to compete with occusync/lightbridge instead of relying on fundamentally flawed WiFi. AFAIC anything that uses WiFi cannot be trusted reliably beyond a few hundred feet. Great video and review, it really opened my eyes to the strengths of the Anafi, I hadn't even considered it as a competitor until now.
Nice to get a review from someone with a lot of DJI experience but not totally biased. I ended up purchasing the Anafi. Having obstacle avoidance wasn't a major consideration and performance wise there is not a lot of difference between the two. The other major issues were noise (Anafi is super quiet), the 180 degree camera and the absence of corporate imposed no fly zones. I fly legal and if I need authorization to fly in a restricted area I can get it from the FAA.
The controller is constantly charging an android phone. There is nothing I can do with it. The phone drains the battery much quicker than the batteries of the drone last. Is it the same if you connect the iphone?
@@yogi8787 That's strange. Because actually there is no difference between Android and iOS. At least not for me, I have 3 skycontrollers and regularly use iPhone & Samsung/Huawei Android phones. The USB port is fully wired and each device receives its 5V.
I would like to see an updated Review now that we have much improved firmware and added features .. I still think in most instances this drone is hard to beat for the price
Drones need to be more like the Anafi. Personally I love the Anafi and I’ve wanted one for the past 2 years. But the new mavic air seems to be super promising. But the Anafi had a huge impact on the drone industry! Just need to wait for parrot to make the Anafi 2.0!
Great review. Because of FAA line of sight rules, most hobbyists should pick the Anafi. If you are shooting footage for commercial purposes, then the DJI line with its longer range makes sense. And in the latter case, and higher altitude, the ability to “look up” is less desirable.
DJI Created the Mavic 2 with the same features but better but the price is also really high In Belgium we can buy the anafi now for 500-600 euro and the Mavic 2 zoom for 1500 euro
By the way, thank you, Tony Northrup. Watched your Free FAA Part 107 Drone Certification video multiple times. I received my FAA Part 107 sUAS Remote Pilot License in February 2020.
Very nice and informative review Tony. I just bought my Anafi, and so far I'm very happy with it. I just wonder how you export your video to UA-cam, cause I notice the drone footage is very smooth, even when panning. This is not the case when I put my dronevideo on UA-cam, it was a bit choppy and far from smooth. I filmed in 4k 25fps, and exported it from Premiere with the 1080p UA-cam preset. I did increase the bitrate with a 2 pass rendering and maximum render quality. I live in Norway, so that's why I film in 25fps. Maybe it will be smoother with 30fps? I see a lot of choppy videos out there, but your footage was very smooth, so I would love to know how you process the video, maybe you have a tutorial on that? Great work by the way 😊
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I still testing the Parrot Anafi but I can say the Gimbal and Zoom have changed, from my perspective, the way we look at the air world and even our way of flying with the drone when compared to Bebop 2 or Disco. Thank you very much for the feedback. See you soon, here or in my channel, best regards...
I would pick Anafi for flying anywhere. With DJI, more often you will be bothered with non-flyzone warning, even though you just want to get a selfie shot close by
The video is so heavily biased. It's unwatchable. Showed a crashed Mavic Air which have many sensors. But didn't crash the one with zero sensor. Make sense!
I was making the point that while the Mavic Air has sensors, it doesn't have 360 coverage, and can't be relied upon. They're mostly for marketing. And the video is most definitely not biased; I've never accepted money or free equipment from Parrot. I just like making videos with drones and hate getting the props in the shot and I like traveling light.
@@TonyAndChelsea But why did you focused little too much on the bad side of Mavic? While you clearly having difficulties just keeping the Parrot hover steady.
i have had 2 dji drones and i stopt buying them because i got so tierd of every time i wanted to fly there was a update that i had to do first. and you can only fly 300 meters up and the mountains here is higher then 300 meters . i dont want a drone that tells me what i can and can not do.. i meen if i want to break some strange rules then that is up to me
Great to FINALLY see an honest-to-goodness review on these drones. Nothing against DJI but there are so many pro-DJI comments that totally crap all over everything else it makes me sick. Kudos to you, man.
Good honest review, aside from your comment about the 30mph winds. Yes there may have been winds that strong that day, just not where you were at the time of filming and mentioning the wind.
I recently gave my brother my Mavic pro and purchased the Anafi. For a number of reasons, including those you mentioned, The Anafi is my go to drone. It is far easier to pull out of my backpack and launch and I find myself using it way more often than I did the Mavic. Thank you for the review.
I've been investigating both for awhile, getting ready to pull the trigger on the Mavic. The Anafi has way too many open areas on it's body while the Mavic is much more tightly sealed. Literally the only knock I got out of this against the Mavic is props getting in shots, which isn't a deal breaker as I can slightly zoom in the shot during post production, removing the props.
I have P1, P2, P4, P4P, I1, I1pro and now an Anafi! Yes it is very good drone for producing easily and quickly very nice footage just for 699€. Anafi is almost invisible and silent.. nobody understands that there is a drone near by! The app has many problems but you can live with them!
thats why they called it "PRO" ...cause of its profesional artistic exression .,plus what i wrote !!....if you try it ,you 'll never look back again drones anafi type !!!
i also have experience with drones p3 p4 and mavic pro platinum now ....so, the winner for camera only is P4 ,but mavic pro have nice camera and with editing the videos doesnt make different than p4 video ...plus the portability ,speed ,distance, better gps system ,stability ,flying ,aerodynamic degin, the mavic pro platinum is the winner so far ....anafi is a good drone ,byt only good ....for money cost i'll go for mavic air and not anafi !!!!!
This was the first review I’d seen on the Parrot Anafi, let me restate that, it was my introduction to the Anafi. That was several months ago and I liked what I saw, but still had reservation. I have a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 and I love it, but I found myself checking out the Anafi every chance I got..., and well I finally bought the Anafi Extended just before Christmas. Wow! I love my Anafi! It is a blast to fly, I get great shots and it seems to have become my go-to drone. If I desire to fly at distance, I take the Phantom, for everything else it’s the Anafi. So quiet too! Thank you for the introduction!
Here's my experience with DJI and Parrot. I am not biased -if it works its good -if it doesnt work its bad... I have a DJI my friend has a Parrot. His flies off, all over the place -got lost one time -hit the return to home when we were on the beach one day and it flew out to sea....we did get it back but it was dodgy, software disconnecting sporadically, losing connectivity -as opposed to mine = 0% drama...never lost it, never failed to return home -flew it well out of sight a mile across water -up through a dense fog belt 600 feet high -it comes home every time and the footage is excellent -it works= its good. my friends Parrot didnt work =bad..... hopefully things have changed for Parrot - but thats just my experience
The on-screen instructions say to point the nose downward in the 2nd step of compass calibration. In addition, you have your smartwatch and the remote within 4 ft of the drone when calibrating the compass. I think you follow the instructions, you will have a higher likelihood for successful calibration.
DJI fanboys will have 101 excuses to defend every issue you came across with the Mavic and still scream it's a better drone. Deluded. GREAT review, professional production. 👍😎
Tony, rumour has it that if you say something is as good as or better than anything DJI, you get attacked by DJI snipers. Watch yourself dude, you might be a marked man now. :D
I love how compact the Anafi is but the lack of obstacle avoidance at that price range is ludacris. I don't know if this supports prop-guards, but it really should especially without the OA. We live in a age of 360° cameras so it seems to me there could be a single 360° OA sensor to help avoid obstacles. Also the way the microSD card installs under the battery isn't great. USB-C charging is a good idea but the fact that it charges slowly isn't that great. The Mavic Air seems a bit more protected from the elements whereas the Anafi has a lot of vents that directly expose the electronics. Maybe there will be improvements in the next version of this drone.
Mavic Pros are better because they don't run on WiFi, although the range is ok on the Air, you're blocked most of the tine Mavic Pro 2, Mavic Pro Zoom and Enterprise (if launched) will definitely be in my wishlist
Just let competitors exist haha. Competition is good. I myself own 3 dji drones (phantom 3 pro, phantom 4, and mavic), but also use parrot for fun shots
Parrot made for a child i’ve owned three. Bebop two power Until I purchased DJI and realized that this drone is not for an adult or the quality is definitely not worth it once you go to DJI you’ll discover how awesome the company is the make the quality
You may need to turn off the wi-fi on your phone so that the drone uses the controller's wi-fi instead of the phone's wi-fi, which gives much better range. It's in the user manual that this may be required. It would really be interesting to see if this was your problem with range
Thanks for putting this together Tony. I've been on the fence about buying a drone for a while now and was thinking that DJI really had the monopoly. Great to see a serious competitor and I'll take a closer look at Parrot as an option now. Really like the gimbal 180, and the no props I'm the frame aspects, these are strong selling points.
There is an additional 30° you can utilize from the mavic air through camera settings. You might not get 180° like the parrot has but it is definitely a beneficial aspect on creating visually appealing compositions.
I'm late to this party. I'm watching everything I can before getting my first "non-toy" drone. I appreciate a non-dji centric review. It's not quite enough to dissuade me from knocking the "Air" off the top of my "Might buy" list, but it's nice to hear honest opinion. Now that its several months later, are you still glad you chose the Anafi to take with you on vacation? Or do you wish you had taken something else instead?
Maybe I missed comments about "flying over water" with the ANAFI. The current caution advice is to stay more than 10 meters above any kind of water surface. One can still get some great shots at that height, however it would be great to have the option of flying lower if you know in advance what might happen, and how to avoid a water encounter. Maybe a future software update that offers the option to choose over-land or over-water?
Has DJI been giving this guy all their faulty drones? I think the air might be buggier than the other models, but I have never had to recalibrate my DJI Spark IMU or compass. It has never had any significant problems. I like DJI because of all the smart features and quality, but I can see how the 180 degree gimbal could be useful. Thank you for pointing out the negatives as well as the positives and not being fairly ignorant like most Parrot fans.
Great video. Honest, in depth and didn't drag on like many do. Well done. I like the fact the Parrot is quiet. Where I live there are DJIs everywhere and people are sick of them buzzing around all the time. My daughter even got stalked by one while walking the dog along the beach and boardwalk. It got quite close and it freaked her out knowing someone was taking high res footage of her. We also found a lost drone in our front yard! Anyway keep up the good work.
You seem to like the Parrot but all the important things are better on the DJI drones. Being able to look up?? It's a drone it's up in the air what are you looking up at lol? Give that to the kids and get a Mavic 2 Pro ;)
Why DJI users are acting like crazy? I’m a DJI user, I want to see Parrot drone to compete with DJI. It’s good for consumers like all of us. Good video!
A quarter of a mile distance compared to a solid 2+ miles on the Mavic Air and 3+ on the Mavic Pro miles is a huge. Also I don't even really like the Mavic Air because it relies on wifi. Ocusync and definitely Lightbridge is much more efficient and reliable compared to not much reliability on wifi signals. Also you show a bit of a bias. Your Anafi tracking shot is very clearly using the digital zoom feature. You say the Mavic can't do that but is it really that difficult to film a shot in 4:3 and it'll automatically correct in 16:9 in editing or you simply crop which is identical to using a digital zoom as used in the tracking shot, because I don't think so. I don't know if it's just me either but standing in an area with a ton of metal then complaining when it won't calibrate properly doesn't say experienced drone pilot or again it's creating a bias. Calibration should be done every single time you change location whether it's needed or not. You correct your issues with the Anafi by taking your watch off but you blame the Mavic Air for your issue instead of attempting to address your error. Last thing is just the fact that parrot has to go to making features in app purchases rather than just including them with the drone software in the first place.
As much as I like the Mavic and Phantoms, I really love how the gimbal can face upward. I think my Mavic can slightly, but nothing as crazy as the Anafi. Maybe I’ll check it out.
That makes it a great review, you wanna know why? Because its unbiased, its telling you as it is so you can make your own choice. Go buy the Mavic, nobody's stopping you
I have my dji spark for 1 year now. Never had any error and only had to recalibrate the compas once(i flew near to some electrical cables) the price and quality of the anafi seems good though.
This was a great video. I own mavic air, and have found it very dependable. I don't use it every day like you do. My work uses GPS and magnetic orientation to determine declination. These systems cannot work without a properly calibrated compass. You cannot calibrate a compass around anything metal. I know it seems like a bug, but mavic has an extremely sensitive compass. ANY metal near you while calibrating will absolutely affect calibration. It's not a sign of poor quality, its a sign of high quality. These systems are critical to your drone and its safety, and public safety. These things dont think, therefore, annoying as it may be, dont mistake a failsafe on your positioning and guidance system as a bug. It is nice to see that DJI has competition, i find my mavic air to be an extremely advanced and useful tool, but i hope parrot can continue to develop competitive tech and carve a market share that encourages more advancement. People seem to view these as toys, they are precision instruments with extremely advanced tech, they would not even be flyable without multiple concurrent systems working in harmony.
not a fandoy for both DJi and Parrot, but seems like the market is toward to DJI, they have much better marketing strategy /business model than other drone companies out there.
Well, Tony, I did buy an Anafi but it has the same issues as the DJI with corrupt files. I'd say all of them go corrupt constantly and you have to re-record video with the drone in some black magic way in order to get them to decorrupt. I don't know if I recommend the Anafi anymore than any DJI. The only reason the Anafi is better, to me, is the lack of fly zone controls. EDIT: Turns out it might just be my sd card reader. Anafi is a bit choosy there with SD card readers.
this video is completely misleading citing very rare mavic air problems that I never had (video corruption, motor problem, recalibration everyday, etc) while never citing anafi problems (lost of signal leading to crash and no return to home(reported by a lot of persons on amazon comments and blogs), lower range, video zoom losing lot of quality, etc).
I specifically mentioned the lower range of the Anafi. I showed all the problems I had with it; obviously I never crashed it, and I wouldn't have flown it outside of its range. All the problems with the Mavic were problems I actually had. If DJI made the Anafi, the review would have been exactly the same.
Big Thanks to T&C I was on the fence for a long time and bought the Parrot Anafi today. It seems there are two schools of thought those who pilot drones with a camera attached and those want a particular or unique picture or video and need a drone to get the camera in position. For my buck Anafi gets a better picture. I also find the sound less anoying than the DJI Mavic.
your success is well deserved guys! i remember when your subscriber count was unbelievably low. Thanks for sharing another piece of tech that i didn't know existed!
"While the Mavic Air can be your arial shot or maybe your boom shot, the Parrot can be your dolly shot"... "The Anafi doesn't bother you with no fly zones" ...SOLD, thanks!
You were using the mavic in sports mode - that's why the props were in the shot. Apologies if you mentioned this in the video - I didn't see it if you did. Good to see the Mavic getting some competition though.
Yeah, we do discuss that; it has to be in sport mode to track fast-moving subjects. Also, the props were getting in some upwind shots even when not in sport mode.
Just my two cents: I'm more a photographer than videographer, and the Mavic Air has been a fantastic tool for aerial photography. It fits very nicely into my existing compact camera bag, which the Anafi would be too big for. I agree with the majority of what you say in this video, but just thought I'd put that out there, because I don't see people talk about photography with drones very often.
i would like to think that the compass error on the mavic air was due to the metal railing that you were surrounded by? maybe a moving to an area with less interference would have yielded better results?
Great video! I agree with your review but my Anafi is already at the bottom of a lake. I flew mine over water, taking great shots on a no wind and sunny day, and then tragedy struck. My Anafi fell out of the sky at 58% battery. Please be careful out there. I have read review from 3 other users where this occurred. However I think you did a video on similar occurrences with all drones.
I hope to see parrot improve. I have a parrot Bebop gen 1 and parrot knew that was a garbage drone. They were basically taking drones in for warranty claims and it seems they were just sending those back out to other people. It took me 4 returns to get a drone that would fly again, but I could never trust it. With flying drones, you NEED to trust your gear. Upgraded to a Mavic Air and I’m a lot happier. I would like to see obstacle avoidance on the anafi.
![DJI MAVIC 2 PRO IS THE BEST DRONE! - In-Depth Review [4K]](/img/n.gif)
Addressing common comments: 1) No, I wasn't paid by Parrot. I bought the drone off-the-shelf. We fully disclose all sponsorships. If it was sponsored, they certainly wouldn't have wanted me to compare it to a 90's Yugo.
2) It seems I'm a lousy dancer. OK, but that dance has generally worked for me.
3) Some people think the railing is the cause of the calibration errors... OK, maybe. It's not that close, and it's not that substantial. I've launched from that spot with every drone I've ever owned and haven't had issues in the past. I wasn't exactly taking off from the hood of a car. It didn't cause any problems for the Parrot.
So, if you're a DJI fan and you're looking for a reason to dismiss the review, take comfort in my imperfect dance. I was clear in the video that my commentary wasn't based on that one specific example, but rather on years of experience in a wide variety of scenarios.
Lol, don't underestimate the Yugo from 90's ;P
i have the mavic air, i can definitely agree with the points made by you. the compass calibration is a total nightmare to deal with and it is a constant issue for me. DJI is the big player inb the game and with that comes a built in bias when dealing with reviews and comparison i find. i think that parrot can carve out a decent chunk of the market if they offer drones that have features like zoom, 180 degree viewing angles etc. only point i disagree with is the usb charging being a plus. the interchangeable batteries on the mavic air can effectively give you about 45-50 minutes of flight time which is a huge deal.
LOL don't listen to the DJI faithful. I too own several DJI drones and they are not perfection. Nor are the apps which almost always feel like they are in Beta and being fixed and broken many times a year. This is a cool drone. Thanks for the unbiased review. Subscribed and I bought your books. You do great work.
That dance got you Chelsea...and Chelsea is quite easy on the eyes sir!
My first car was Yugo :-) ...Pozdrav iz Beograda :-)
Won't make me switch from the Mavic that I already have but it's very good to see some actual competition in the drone market! I really hope Parrot keeps improving their products so maybe one day I will get one of their drones :)
Parrot was the first one to ever mass produce and market a Drone, remember the AR.Drone? that was pretty impressive at the time, then DJI came and Parrot was done, is good to see Parrot coming back with a product that actually could compete with DJI
competition is always good for us customers (y)
Compares two drones in the same price range. Gets 100 comments from idiots saying "The $1500 Mavic 2 Pro something something". Even the Mavic 2 Pro can't look up, & only has digital zoom. The Mavic 2 Pro Zoom is also only digital zoom, & only has a 12MP sensor. The Anafi's sensor is 21MP.
I bought an Anafi Extended, instead of an Air. Well worth the price. I actually look for things to use the zoom & gimbal tilt on, just because I can.
By the way, Parrot just received $11 million from the US Defense Department, for military scout drone research. Parrot ain't going anywhere but up.
I like the low noise level the best. Especially for travel. I loathe loud drones when I’m on vacation.
Flew a Mavic Air, Spark, and Pro at the beaches in SC recently. The most annoying and most often complained about was the Mavic Air. Yeah that drone is incredibly noisy.
THis Anafi looks really cool. So glad DJI has competition and not just cheap toy wannabes. Yuneec needs to make their version next, but something bigger than the Mantis.
The new props for the Mavic Pro have winglets that reduce the noise significantly. About the same as the Anafi.
Anafi still much quieter than MPP.
Yes, we would hate for anything to impede on your luxurious vacation time.
It's wise to be courteous and considerate to beachgoers, guests there etc. Not everyone flies a drone, not everyone wants one flown near them. The more noticeable the prop noise it to those more private individuals, they more they will report the drone user, or simply make it known they don't like it near them. Anafi and MP are pretty quiet for the most part, so if you fly those it can be less of an obvious attention getter other that kids yelling "cool !! a drone"
Vacationers are really going to like this drone. I agree with Tony 100% here. Most others say DJI beats the crap out of this drone, but there is a lot of bias, and they often do not consider the average user. Just like the average user of DSLR's will not jump at $1500 cameras and buy the $450 dslr with 2-3 kit lenses and do a great job in auto modes and have great pics of their event.
Drone bans and limits are being posted at many beaches these days. For one, too many people flying over crowds. That is dangerous. If more flew away from crowds and away from the buildings and boardwalks it would have been better. One crash into a balcony like recently at Ocean City can really change the drone permissions. One incident of a MP crashing into a 12 th floor balcony convinced the area to ban drones there. That was one of the last places free to fly. Most others in resort or vacation areas have drone bans posted.
“Last major competitor who could take on DJI”. Skydio would like to have a word with you.
Give them a year or two at the most, I think Skydio will release a consumer drone that will really challenge DJI's dominance.
The Skydio is used to photograph moving subjects, is better at this than the Mavic. But this is only a small part of the demand. Most people buy drones to take pictures of static scenes..
Autel
LOL this. Skydio couldn't take on DJI in the field so they're taking them out in the halls of Congress.
Tony , really good job in calling attention to Anafi as a good alternative to DJI. I first bought the DJI Mavic Air and have frequent frustration with calibration (i am doing it right) and NFZ blocking, as well as required reading notices in the middle of preflight preparation. The noise really bothered me as well. So when Anafi came out, I bought it and have been much happier with it than the Air. Didn't know you could hand launch and catch until I saw you doing it. So I tried it and it works much better than Mavic Air hand launch and catch. Once you lift up the Anafi, it knows and goes into handlaunch mode. Best way to hand catch? Bring anafi to 1-2 feet above your head, place hand a foot below and click landing button. It will simply land onto your hand. Do not grab.
In the beginning, once in awhile Anafi will drift but now it doesn't so perhaps their has been some upgrading. I now also see english feet measurements instead of meters.
As a DIY, I'd like to open the battery. There are 2 batteries in there, so if you remove one it's possible this Anafi drone is below 250 grams. Also if those batteries are any standard types such as 16550, we can make our extra battery and charging set and swap the batteries cylinders themselves. I'm just speculating here.
Overall, the advantages of Anafi over Mavic Air has grown on me over time.
Berri Jam Frankly, based on the review and all the comments, I wouldn't get either. I don't mind waiting a few more years till there are more and more-reliable options on the market.
@@simonwalter7142 You will never stop waiting: there's always newer tech on the horizon. And if you can wait several years, you clearly don't have a need or desire to shoot video, so why get one at all?
@@mwarnas What? You're saying drones aren't going to improve and get cheaper? That is inevitable, like all new tech. Do you live under a rock?
I've had my (refurbished) Mavic Pro for almost a year now and have had no notable problems with it. I calibrated the compass and optical sensors once (correctly) and never had to calibrate again. The Mavic's range is measured in km not m. I can sit in my car and fly behind myself 2 km and still have HD video (sometimes I like to not be present when I film something). The Mavic Pro's camera can tilt up and the props do not get in the video. Also, The mavic pro has digital zoom. You can literally program it to a knob. Here he shows the Mavic air not keeping up with the boat, but both the air and pro will go 40mph with or against wind. Also note the Mavic has accurate RTL within 6 inches. The Mavic also has 3 pages of intelligent flight modes making pretty much any shot automatic if you so choose. If you want a good travel drone pick up a Mavic Pro. It's the same price as the Anafi and frankly much more versatile and better in general. The only down side to DJI products is the app. It's pretty terrible. Thankfully for 30$ you can pick up Litchi from the app store to solve all your problems.
I have no problems with the app.. I do have Litchi but I rarely use it. GO seems pretty refined.
Propellers in the shot is a MAJOR problem with dji and completely destroys once-in-a-lifetime shots. I hope this is fixed in the mavic 2 next week.
1Lifeonearth I hope u r correct all this suspense by dji
What propellers in the shot?
Unless I'm filming in sport mode, I never see the mavics props.
I'm referring to my phantom, but I thought tony said his mavic shows the props too.
Many MP, MA, and MP2 videos with props in the scene.
@@mattball7341
I'd bet those are from people who increase the gimbal range of movement. I've got mine set as stock.
I had to return two DJI drones. One was a Mavic Air with a faulty WiFi receiver, and the other was a Mavic Pro Platinum with a defective compass; it malfunctioned in flight, but recovered a couple seconds later.. I finally managed to get a Mavic Air that's not a lemon, which I intend to keep and use within its limitations. Good review on the Parrot Anafi, by the way.
The great thing about your channel is the ability to watch older videos and still come away with not only being entertained, but becoming more knowledgeable. Thank you sir!
Good review. Like my mavic air, but this looks like a strong competitor.
But last month you said "don't buy a drone" because you can't fly them anywhere anymore?
yes, thats exactly what I was thinking!
I definitely didn't say that you couldn't fly them anywhere. In fact, I said that I hoped people would buy a drone.
I think that they are both pretty awesome drones!
Tony & Chelsea Northrup I’m in the UK and things are still okay regarding the ability to fly drones where you want (within reason) I just felt your previous video was implying buying one was now more a no than a yes.
Robert Few I think he was saying you can’t fly a Dji product because of the NFZ , the Anahi does not has that problem that’s why I have one and doumped dji
Electronic stabilization? That's always worse than a gimbal.
I was reluctant to it, but after a few hours of footage I completely forgot about it. I can't even tell.
Yeah I hate that, your damaging your footage from the start. It would be warped and you’d have to crop most of your frame out if you add any additional warp stabilization
Not when you realize the 21MP camera of the Parrot will have better resolution after electronic stabilization degradation than the shitty 12MP of the Air's camera. It might be worse than a gimbal, but its not worse than the Mavic Air. Parrot wins here.
@@JKolman1234 noooo. I can definitely see when the parrot falters in the stabilization. Especially in the trees. Mavic does not do this. If you want competition for DJI, you can forget about f'ing parrot. The real competition is the Autel Evo.
I'll forgive you because you said it before the GoPro 8 was released..
Move away from the rail guard which is metal. That might help with your compass calibration!
I don't believe there's an actual compass in the phone, just GPS time signatures and cell tower triangulation
The compass in the Drone.
The rail guard wasn't preventing successfully calibration, the way in which he was rapidly and inconsistently rotating is why his calibration failed, and kept failing. Calibration should be slow, consistent movements in a rotation pattern, not abrupt and odd spinning.
DroningON that's what she said
Jesus Manuel Barreto lol!!
It is so nice to have someone giving an honest opinion. spending my hard earned money on a product that I have no experience with is a big deal. Prior to seeing this video, I was considering the DJI products. The spark which I probably would have purchased was the same price (with the fly more package which I would have needed because of the short battery life). Yesterday I went and picked up the ANAFI and so far I am so happy that I did. 4K video, 25 min flight time on the battery, Quite a bit more options shooting in manual. I feel like I got a tool and not a toy. I don't feel like I had to sacrifice features because of my budget. Anyway, Tony Thank You for putting this information out there. Thank you for your honesty about sponsorships and your integrity.
Owning both of these drones I agree with you on just about every point both good and bad. The Air is beautiful and has some great features.... when it works, and in my experiences it often fails and leads to a lot of frustration. Since purchasing the Anafi I took it on a trip to Oahu and it performed flawlessly, it flew the first time every time and got the shots I wanted. The shortened range isn't really an issue for my practical uses but it I do sometimes miss the safety net of obstacle avoidance. I also learned to wait for the green GPS lock before taking off, must have missed that part in the manual my first read through 😳. I also came to prefer the Anafi form factor while hiking around the island. I slip my camera bag strap through the elastic bands on the case, this actually frees up some space in the bag and made accessing the Anafi easier. I also carried around a quick charge 3.0 power pack to keep the batteries topped off in between flights and never missed a flight opportunity. For now the Anafi is far and away my preferred travel drone given how much quieter it is and the fact that it just plain works when I need it to.
Yeah, we're in Norway now, and I just now figured out to wait for the green GPS. I wish the software had the option to not take off without GPS. I took off high in the mountains without a GPS lock and it just took off in a random direction, hundreds of feet away. Pure luck that it didn't slam into the side of a mountain.
Tony & Chelsea Northrup What part of Norway? If you are in my region i might have some good spots to recommend
Parrot 😂 I rather fly a syma
Is it actually that much quieter? I had an air for a couple weeks last year and I liked it, but it was too expensive to keep and the noise was so intrusive to the people nearby walking dogs etc where I would take it to fly!
@@StudioNirin Yes, it's super quiet...In fact, most people can't even tell it's around when out and about.
Finally an honest comparison. Thanks Tony. Fyi on the range, it will say move the drone closer however my friend kept going and turned the Anafi around at 11, 000 feet, 2.1 miles. The Anafi is the real deal!
Hi Tony, I have both Mavic Air and Anafi got recently. I prefer Anafi: I am so annoyed by DJI Air for the following reasons:
Every time need to do compass calibration, very weak in keeping the connection properly, noise is too much, sport mode/against wind props are into the video, battery lasts no so long. The only good things of Air is the gimbal of 3 axis. The Air has a really a problem with the engeniring of the compass, as is a single compass and not redundant as the Mavic pro.
What I don't like of Anafi: I would prefer to have the take off and landing as the DJI, so start the engine like a combination of inner stick movement, but is ok. Would be super super smart if Parrot would manage to keep weight at 250gs, this for traveling is much much better as in most Country is an assle free and no need registration.
Great review as usual
By the way.....sometimes is better not to have sensor rather than have. Sensor sometimes ruin your shooting, as stops sometimes as nonsense. The latest firmwares fix most of the initial problems initially had. So great Anafi.
A year has passed since this review and it was one of the reasons I bought the Anafi. Since then I've also acquired a Mavic 2 Pro and I've found are 2 major distinctions: weight and sensors. They both have their merits, and that brings me to this post with a question: I'll be traveling to Europe (Budapest and Spain) from the U.S. next summer and I'm considering which drone to bring:
Being Part 107 certified I'll be taking all the other preparations and precautions into consideration, in regards to traveling and when and where I can fly.
Anafi Pros: weight, USB charge-able batteries, 20mp sensor with optical & digital zoom
Anafi Cons: no obstacle avoidance, gps reception/connection not as strong as Mavic's
Mavic2 Pros: obstacle avoidance, stronger GPS system
Mavic2 Cons: weight, no zoom, more valuable if lost/stolen
Thanks for your consideration!
Travel light and carry less. The Anafi is a better "travel" drone. Besides that, you should not flight out of line of sight and the wifi connection on the Anafi is enough for that. Be careful flying a drone in Spain, it is forbidden almost every where and fines are hefty. I flew also in Budapest two years ago, but I think now drones (everywhere) are not so welcomed as then. Regulations have taken over and FAA certifications may not be legal in Europe (correct me if I am wrong).
@@jupersan Thanks for the heads-up on Spain, I've seen contradicting posts, I'll do more research- I hope they allow some flying within reason, or at least don't make me ship it back home.
"It doesn't have Imperial units for some reason?"
No Tony, you have them for some reason.
:D
Timothy Daniel
Best comment I saw so far haha
Explain why the Anafi is displaying speed in M/s and distance in YARDS. That's annoying at best. And even metric users rarely use meters per second... they use kilometers per hour.
Hey look I'm into science and the metric system but when you grow up with MPH that's just how you think. I'd happily switch the US to metric if it were up to me.
I mean ... if you ran for president ...
(AND Chelsea would make a great first lady ... just sayin')
Screw that noise. #chelsea2020 #sorrytony
Great review, but I want to make two distinctions:
1) Digital zoom is like cropping in during editing. Resolution will be lost. Optical zoom maintains resolution, which one of the Mavic 2 drones has.
2) Zooms don't allow you to control perspective, since perspective is based on from where you view something. Zooms tighten or widen your composition/framing.
When u start zooming perspective changes from a wide to compressed close shot,,,
There is bias towards the Anafi.
Anafi pros: tilt up (biggest advantage and reason to buy IMO), digital zoom, better camera specs, USB battery charging, price (maybe, if you don't care for flight modes), lighter, longer flight time, less noisy
Anafi cons: 2 axis gimbal, no sensors, longer charge times, cheap build quality, extra $ for flight modes (and fewer flight modes available), shorter range, less stable, less FPS in 4k shooting
Ties: speed, camera footage quality (subjective)
Anafi pros are highlighted and cons are dismissed
I would call it bias. It’s an opinion that he got from use. Unless you used both it would be unfair to criticise. I’m assuming when someone complains that a user favours a product more than the other. I assume they say something because it’s unfavouring the product they own.
Tony, what is your opinion on the Parrot Anafi today in 2022?
- Please share it as your opinions as a trusted professional photographer in highly valued.
I just bought one a few days ago, what's to worry about it still beats most of the new model being released, anywhere close to it's price and higher. Just learn all about the battery and what you have to do to test it, maintain it and trust it.
I own both Parrot Anafi & DJI Mavic Pro. For me, both have a purpose. If it was my first drone, I would go with the Mavic Pro. But I do like the Anafi very much! Flight Plan / autonomous flight is much better with the Anafi!!
I will disagree - DJI has the most extensive software support available. IF you don't like DJI GO you can spend 20 bucks and purchase a completely different system to fly with. I use Litchi for programmed flights - it's amazing. DJI allows you to choose the flight control system you want to use. I don't know of another brand that allows that.
I use to be a Windows person. I work in IT and mainly support Windows. Years ago I said I would never switch to a Mac. Then I got curious, tried one out and love them all the time now. For years I was DJI Phantom owner. I also have videos of me using it here on my channel. There is no question how good they are however, I have a friend that had a drone by Parrot and it seemed like a toy to me. I thought I would never buy one. Last year someone stole my drones and only recently I decided to buy get another one. After seeing your video and others I decided to give it the Anafi a try and I love it! Keep an open mind and never say never. Love you and Chelsea's videos. Keep up the great work!
"No other drone can do this"
Dji be like: Hold on, we're giving u guys the dji Mavic 2 zoom
But everybody on UA-cam is saying go Pro or go home, so they appear to be photographic cognoscenti. You need to ask yourself how are you likely to use it and could you face losing a drone that costs as much as a Mavic 2.
@B Jiang That depends on what you are starting with and what you end up with. If you are recording in 1080 on a sensor that is bigger than 4k you can get useful zoom. I use an Anafi and a Mavic Pro so both can give real zoom at 1080, which is the resolution of my monitor. If you are already maxed out you haven't anywhere else to go. The best zoom is getting closer. The next best is optical. The third best is cropping in on a larger sensor. Most people are stuck with the fourth best, just concentrate a bit harder on that bit of the screen.
@B Jiang You have to try an Anafi to see. The zoom is better than the MP2 digital zoom.
DJI be like: But lets only use digital zoom, and only a shitty 12MP camera compared to Parrot's 21MP optical zoom. Oh then lets charge twice the price... This video was comparing it to the Air jacknuts, same price range. Parrot FTW, obviously.
Every photographer will tell you "Don't ever use digital zoom"
"This is a drone that could change the whole drone industry"
3.5 years later....well, did it?
I just switched to Parrot from DJI Spark,and i feel like i am flying my drone, not fighting with it like with Spark.
My two biggest issues/questions about the Anafi: 1. did the nonmechanical 3rd axis of the gimbal produce any noticeable artifacts in the video? The Bebop 2 "gimbal" was completely virtual and as a result not suitable for video capture. 2. Not really a question more of a concern, why won't Parrot develop a broadcast-type protocol to compete with occusync/lightbridge instead of relying on fundamentally flawed WiFi. AFAIC anything that uses WiFi cannot be trusted reliably beyond a few hundred feet. Great video and review, it really opened my eyes to the strengths of the Anafi, I hadn't even considered it as a competitor until now.
Nice to get a review from someone with a lot of DJI experience but not totally biased. I ended up purchasing the Anafi. Having obstacle avoidance wasn't a major consideration and performance wise there is not a lot of difference between the two. The other major issues were noise (Anafi is super quiet), the 180 degree camera and the absence of corporate imposed no fly zones. I fly legal and if I need authorization to fly in a restricted area I can get it from the FAA.
The controller is constantly charging an android phone. There is nothing
I can do with it. The phone drains the battery much quicker than the
batteries of the drone last. Is it the same if you connect the iphone?
that is not normal. the controller always charges the smartphone, but the battery lasts for a few full flights.
@@raziel8321 perhaps the controller wasn't fully charged. Either way, I bought an iphone and it doesn't charge it. It's the android problem
@@yogi8787 That's strange. Because actually there is no difference between Android and iOS. At least not for me, I have 3 skycontrollers and regularly use iPhone & Samsung/Huawei Android phones. The USB port is fully wired and each device receives its 5V.
@@raziel8321 people talk about this topic on forums and there are threads about the same problem with android. 🤷🏼♂️
I would like to see an updated Review now that we have much improved firmware and added features .. I still think in most instances this drone is hard to beat for the price
I agree, I just posted about this- I've had the Anafi for about a year and recently got the M2Pro.
Drones need to be more like the Anafi. Personally I love the Anafi and I’ve wanted one for the past 2 years. But the new mavic air seems to be super promising. But the Anafi had a huge impact on the drone industry! Just need to wait for parrot to make the Anafi 2.0!
Great review. Because of FAA line of sight rules, most hobbyists should pick the Anafi. If you are shooting footage for commercial purposes, then the DJI line with its longer range makes sense. And in the latter case, and higher altitude, the ability to “look up” is less desirable.
DJI Created the Mavic 2 with the same features but better but the price is also really high
In Belgium we can buy the anafi now for 500-600 euro and the Mavic 2 zoom for 1500 euro
By the way, thank you, Tony Northrup.
Watched your Free FAA Part 107 Drone Certification video multiple times.
I received my FAA Part 107 sUAS Remote Pilot License in February 2020.
Very nice and informative review Tony. I just bought my Anafi, and so far I'm very happy with it. I just wonder how you export your video to UA-cam, cause I notice the drone footage is very smooth, even when panning. This is not the case when I put my dronevideo on UA-cam, it was a bit choppy and far from smooth. I filmed in 4k 25fps, and exported it from Premiere with the 1080p UA-cam preset. I did increase the bitrate with a 2 pass rendering and maximum render quality. I live in Norway, so that's why I film in 25fps. Maybe it will be smoother with 30fps? I see a lot of choppy videos out there, but your footage was very smooth, so I would love to know how you process the video, maybe you have a tutorial on that? Great work by the way 😊
I still testing the Parrot Anafi but I can say the Gimbal and Zoom have changed, from my perspective, the way we look at the air world and even our way of flying with the drone when compared to Bebop 2 or Disco. Thank you very much for the feedback. See you soon, here or in my channel, best regards...
I would pick Anafi for flying anywhere. With DJI, more often you will be bothered with non-flyzone warning, even though you just want to get a selfie shot close by
The video is so heavily biased. It's unwatchable.
Showed a crashed Mavic Air which have many sensors. But didn't crash the one with zero sensor.
Make sense!
I was making the point that while the Mavic Air has sensors, it doesn't have 360 coverage, and can't be relied upon. They're mostly for marketing. And the video is most definitely not biased; I've never accepted money or free equipment from Parrot. I just like making videos with drones and hate getting the props in the shot and I like traveling light.
@@TonyAndChelsea But why did you focused little too much on the bad side of Mavic?
While you clearly having difficulties just keeping the Parrot hover steady.
Mavic Pro has a zoom as well I use it all the time. Parrot has a long way to go to compete with dji
The Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro are dropping on August 23rd, it would be a terrible time to get a new drone rn.
Price...
i have had 2 dji drones and i stopt buying them because i got so tierd of every time i wanted to fly there was a update that i had to do first. and you can only fly 300 meters up and the mountains here is higher then 300 meters . i dont want a drone that tells me what i can and can not do.. i meen if i want to break some strange rules then that is up to me
HIM: "10 METERS per second, pfft!!! don't know why it doesn't use the imperial system."
The rest of the world: TRIGGERED
only you got triggered seems like
Great to FINALLY see an honest-to-goodness review on these drones. Nothing against DJI but there are so many pro-DJI comments that totally crap all over everything else it makes me sick. Kudos to you, man.
Well this was a much better edited and recorded video than some of your other recent reviews, really cool work Tony.
Good honest review, aside from your comment about the 30mph winds. Yes there may have been winds that strong that day, just not where you were at the time of filming and mentioning the wind.
Wow, had no idea there were any DJI-comparable small drones out there. Thanks for the heads-up!
I recently gave my brother my Mavic pro and purchased the Anafi. For a number of reasons, including those you mentioned, The Anafi is my go to drone. It is far easier to pull out of my backpack and launch and I find myself using it way more often than I did the Mavic. Thank you for the review.
Parrot (Video): High quality digital zoom
DJI: Let’s make a mavic 2 zoom!
..for nearly double the price
And still Anafi is the winner! Because it’s more than half the price of fucking DJI
I've been investigating both for awhile, getting ready to pull the trigger on the Mavic. The Anafi has way too many open areas on it's body while the Mavic is much more tightly sealed. Literally the only knock I got out of this against the Mavic is props getting in shots, which isn't a deal breaker as I can slightly zoom in the shot during post production, removing the props.
I have P1, P2, P4, P4P, I1, I1pro and now an Anafi! Yes it is very good drone for producing easily and quickly very nice footage just for 699€. Anafi is almost invisible and silent.. nobody understands that there is a drone near by! The app has many problems but you can live with them!
still the best drone is mavic pro platinum ....30 min in the air - 68 km speed- 7 km distance !!!
If you buy a drone for racing, yes it is better... but If you use it for exploring new ways in artistic expression, it is not.
thats why they called it "PRO" ...cause of its profesional artistic exression .,plus what i wrote !!....if you try it ,you 'll never look back again drones anafi type !!!
I have huge experience with drones, why don't you check my channel to see what I mean. Thanks.
i also have experience with drones p3 p4 and mavic pro platinum now ....so, the winner for camera only is P4 ,but mavic pro have nice camera and with editing the videos doesnt make different than p4 video ...plus the portability ,speed ,distance, better gps system ,stability ,flying ,aerodynamic degin, the mavic pro platinum is the winner so far ....anafi is a good drone ,byt only good ....for money cost i'll go for mavic air and not anafi !!!!!
This was the first review I’d seen on the Parrot Anafi, let me restate that, it was my introduction to the Anafi. That was several months ago and I liked what I saw, but still had reservation. I have a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 and I love it, but I found myself checking out the Anafi every chance I got..., and well I finally bought the Anafi Extended just before Christmas. Wow! I love my Anafi! It is a blast to fly, I get great shots and it seems to have become my go-to drone. If I desire to fly at distance, I take the Phantom, for everything else it’s the Anafi. So quiet too! Thank you for the introduction!
Options are great but running with a shoulder bag is never fun.
Guy Jordan
Man purse.
Here's my experience with DJI and Parrot. I am not biased -if it works its good -if it doesnt work its bad... I have a DJI my friend has a Parrot. His flies off, all over the place -got lost one time -hit the return to home when we were on the beach one day and it flew out to sea....we did get it back but it was dodgy, software disconnecting sporadically, losing connectivity -as opposed to mine = 0% drama...never lost it, never failed to return home -flew it well out of sight a mile across water -up through a dense fog belt 600 feet high -it comes home every time and the footage is excellent -it works= its good. my friends Parrot didnt work =bad..... hopefully things have changed for Parrot - but thats just my experience
I bought a Parrot drone once and it was definitely a bad drone. I hope this one is a good one.
The on-screen instructions say to point the nose downward in the 2nd step of compass calibration. In addition, you have your smartwatch and the remote within 4 ft of the drone when calibrating the compass. I think you follow the instructions, you will have a higher likelihood for successful calibration.
This was in reference to the Mavic Air*
i choose the Anafi - got some great results with it!
DJI fanboys will have 101 excuses to defend every issue you came across with the Mavic and still scream it's a better drone. Deluded.
GREAT review, professional production. 👍😎
Tony, rumour has it that if you say something is as good as or better than anything DJI, you get attacked by DJI snipers. Watch yourself dude, you might be a marked man now. :D
Fact has it that DJI simply makes a superior product.
I love how compact the Anafi is but the lack of obstacle avoidance at that price range is ludacris. I don't know if this supports prop-guards, but it really should especially without the OA. We live in a age of 360° cameras so it seems to me there could be a single 360° OA sensor to help avoid obstacles. Also the way the microSD card installs under the battery isn't great. USB-C charging is a good idea but the fact that it charges slowly isn't that great. The Mavic Air seems a bit more protected from the elements whereas the Anafi has a lot of vents that directly expose the electronics. Maybe there will be improvements in the next version of this drone.
Mavic Air is way better! The range is km vs m...
Mavic Pros are better because they don't run on WiFi, although the range is ok on the Air, you're blocked most of the tine Mavic Pro 2, Mavic Pro Zoom and Enterprise (if launched) will definitely be in my wishlist
Just let competitors exist haha. Competition is good. I myself own 3 dji drones (phantom 3 pro, phantom 4, and mavic), but also use parrot for fun shots
@@thornclawofwarriors your wasting money on those other drones.
@@JinKazama92 ??? Which one?
@@thornclawofwarriors which 1 do you like the most
Parrot made for a child i’ve owned three. Bebop two power Until I purchased DJI and realized that this drone is not for an adult or the quality is definitely not worth it once you go to DJI you’ll discover how awesome the company is the make the quality
A digital zoom does not control perspective.
Just what i also reacted on, its just a simple crop....
You may need to turn off the wi-fi on your phone so that the drone uses the controller's wi-fi instead of the phone's wi-fi, which gives much better range. It's in the user manual that this may be required. It would really be interesting to see if this was your problem with range
Thanks for putting this together Tony. I've been on the fence about buying a drone for a while now and was thinking that DJI really had the monopoly. Great to see a serious competitor and I'll take a closer look at Parrot as an option now. Really like the gimbal 180, and the no props I'm the frame aspects, these are strong selling points.
There is an additional 30° you can utilize from the mavic air through camera settings. You might not get 180° like the parrot has but it is definitely a beneficial aspect on creating visually appealing compositions.
Nice presentation but I’ll stick with the confidence I feel flying my DJI. Thanks for the video
DJI the best yeah plks sbs my channel friend
Same confidence with Parrot, i fly old Bebop 2 and its very reliable, always comes back if you losing signal...
I'm late to this party. I'm watching everything I can before getting my first "non-toy" drone. I appreciate a non-dji centric review. It's not quite enough to dissuade me from knocking the "Air" off the top of my "Might buy" list, but it's nice to hear honest opinion. Now that its several months later, are you still glad you chose the Anafi to take with you on vacation? Or do you wish you had taken something else instead?
Thank God, he said D"Jay"I, and not D"Gee"I.
Maybe I missed comments about "flying over water" with the ANAFI. The current caution advice is to stay more than 10 meters above any kind of water surface. One can still get some great shots at that height, however it would be great to have the option of flying lower if you know in advance what might happen, and how to avoid a water encounter. Maybe a future software update that offers the option to choose over-land or over-water?
The DJI army is approaching just over the horizon.
They're moving fast too. Looks like the lighter wallets are helping their stride.
Too bad the parrot can't get a clear vision because it's busy getting calibrated.
@@TrifectaMonkey Not an issue I've ever dealt with. In fact, always took off much faster than my DJI flights.
Has DJI been giving this guy all their faulty drones? I think the air might be buggier than the other models, but I have never had to recalibrate my DJI Spark IMU or compass. It has never had any significant problems. I like DJI because of all the smart features and quality, but I can see how the 180 degree gimbal could be useful. Thank you for pointing out the negatives as well as the positives and not being fairly ignorant like most Parrot fans.
I'm not a good dancer but did the calibration dance at a wedding, was a massive hit.
Great video. Honest, in depth and didn't drag on like many do. Well done. I like the fact the Parrot is quiet. Where I live there are DJIs everywhere and people are sick of them buzzing around all the time. My daughter even got stalked by one while walking the dog along the beach and boardwalk. It got quite close and it freaked her out knowing someone was taking high res footage of her. We also found a lost drone in our front yard! Anyway keep up the good work.
You seem to like the Parrot but all the important things are better on the DJI drones. Being able to look up?? It's a drone it's up in the air what are you looking up at lol? Give that to the kids and get a Mavic 2 Pro ;)
Kevin Jones haven’t you seen Avitar? It’s so the little dragon bird can’t drop a blue lemur on you, 🤣
Why DJI users are acting like crazy? I’m a DJI user, I want to see Parrot drone to compete with DJI. It’s good for consumers like all of us. Good video!
A quarter of a mile distance compared to a solid 2+ miles on the Mavic Air and 3+ on the Mavic Pro miles is a huge. Also I don't even really like the Mavic Air because it relies on wifi. Ocusync and definitely Lightbridge is much more efficient and reliable compared to not much reliability on wifi signals.
Also you show a bit of a bias. Your Anafi tracking shot is very clearly using the digital zoom feature. You say the Mavic can't do that but is it really that difficult to film a shot in 4:3 and it'll automatically correct in 16:9 in editing or you simply crop which is identical to using a digital zoom as used in the tracking shot, because I don't think so.
I don't know if it's just me either but standing in an area with a ton of metal then complaining when it won't calibrate properly doesn't say experienced drone pilot or again it's creating a bias. Calibration should be done every single time you change location whether it's needed or not. You correct your issues with the Anafi by taking your watch off but you blame the Mavic Air for your issue instead of attempting to address your error.
Last thing is just the fact that parrot has to go to making features in app purchases rather than just including them with the drone software in the first place.
As much as I like the Mavic and Phantoms, I really love how the gimbal can face upward. I think my Mavic can slightly, but nothing as crazy as the Anafi. Maybe I’ll check it out.
This is actually a funny review.
After watching the whole video its made me want to buy a Mavic...
That makes it a great review, you wanna know why? Because its unbiased, its telling you as it is so you can make your own choice. Go buy the Mavic, nobody's stopping you
I have my dji spark for 1 year now. Never had any error and only had to recalibrate the compas once(i flew near to some electrical cables) the price and quality of the anafi seems good though.
It is good to have competition. Each company has to try to improve their product.
Alex Nikon AYE!
This was a great video. I own mavic air, and have found it very dependable. I don't use it every day like you do. My work uses GPS and magnetic orientation to determine declination. These systems cannot work without a properly calibrated compass. You cannot calibrate a compass around anything metal. I know it seems like a bug, but mavic has an extremely sensitive compass. ANY metal near you while calibrating will absolutely affect calibration. It's not a sign of poor quality, its a sign of high quality. These systems are critical to your drone and its safety, and public safety. These things dont think, therefore, annoying as it may be, dont mistake a failsafe on your positioning and guidance system as a bug. It is nice to see that DJI has competition, i find my mavic air to be an extremely advanced and useful tool, but i hope parrot can continue to develop competitive tech and carve a market share that encourages more advancement. People seem to view these as toys, they are precision instruments with extremely advanced tech, they would not even be flyable without multiple concurrent systems working in harmony.
6:12 Hearing tony swear was on my bucket-list.
not a fandoy for both DJi and Parrot, but seems like the market is toward to DJI, they have much better marketing strategy /business model than other drone companies out there.
I won't believe this is better until I see some upskirt videos...
Well, Tony, I did buy an Anafi but it has the same issues as the DJI with corrupt files. I'd say all of them go corrupt constantly and you have to re-record video with the drone in some black magic way in order to get them to decorrupt. I don't know if I recommend the Anafi anymore than any DJI. The only reason the Anafi is better, to me, is the lack of fly zone controls.
EDIT: Turns out it might just be my sd card reader. Anafi is a bit choosy there with SD card readers.
"The ole calibration dance" 😂 Love it Tony. Another great review/video.
Might not be to smart to calibrate right beside that metal rail??
this video is completely misleading citing very rare mavic air problems that I never had (video corruption, motor problem, recalibration everyday, etc) while never citing anafi problems (lost of signal leading to crash and no return to home(reported by a lot of persons on amazon comments and blogs), lower range, video zoom losing lot of quality, etc).
I specifically mentioned the lower range of the Anafi. I showed all the problems I had with it; obviously I never crashed it, and I wouldn't have flown it outside of its range. All the problems with the Mavic were problems I actually had. If DJI made the Anafi, the review would have been exactly the same.
Using ND filters to lower the shutter speed on Mavic will eliminate the props in picture as it will just blur them out.
While also affecting the picture but 🤷♂️
@@jd2161 Not necessarily obvious if you use good quality nd filters and do not pixel peep or view on huge screens.
Big Thanks to T&C I was on the fence for a long time and bought the Parrot Anafi today. It seems there are two schools of thought those who pilot drones with a camera attached and those want a particular or unique picture or video and need a drone to get the camera in position. For my buck Anafi gets a better picture.
I also find the sound less anoying than the DJI Mavic.
Let's face it. DJI is the King of drones 👑
LAUGH
@@88joshuajohnathan LAUGH doesn't explain much man. Tell us your opinion.
your success is well deserved guys! i remember when your subscriber count was unbelievably low. Thanks for sharing another piece of tech that i didn't know existed!
"While the Mavic Air can be your arial shot or maybe your boom shot, the Parrot can be your dolly shot"... "The Anafi doesn't bother you with no fly zones" ...SOLD, thanks!
You were using the mavic in sports mode - that's why the props were in the shot. Apologies if you mentioned this in the video - I didn't see it if you did. Good to see the Mavic getting some competition though.
Yeah, we do discuss that; it has to be in sport mode to track fast-moving subjects. Also, the props were getting in some upwind shots even when not in sport mode.
"Limited gimbal tilt" sounds like a Shakespearean invective.
Just my two cents: I'm more a photographer than videographer, and the Mavic Air has been a fantastic tool for aerial photography. It fits very nicely into my existing compact camera bag, which the Anafi would be too big for.
I agree with the majority of what you say in this video, but just thought I'd put that out there, because I don't see people talk about photography with drones very often.
i would like to think that the compass error on the mavic air was due to the metal railing that you were surrounded by? maybe a moving to an area with less interference would have yielded better results?
Looks to me he was doing the compass dance too quickly
Great video! I agree with your review but my Anafi is already at the bottom of a lake. I flew mine over water, taking great shots on a no wind and sunny day, and then tragedy struck. My Anafi fell out of the sky at 58% battery. Please be careful out there. I have read review from 3 other users where this occurred. However I think you did a video on similar occurrences with all drones.
The FRENCH company need to make more test on this drone before launching this product to the market.
I hope to see parrot improve. I have a parrot Bebop gen 1 and parrot knew that was a garbage drone. They were basically taking drones in for warranty claims and it seems they were just sending those back out to other people. It took me 4 returns to get a drone that would fly again, but I could never trust it. With flying drones, you NEED to trust your gear.
Upgraded to a Mavic Air and I’m a lot happier. I would like to see obstacle avoidance on the anafi.