Parrot Anafi Drone

The marketing department at Parrot my have had a mare with the name but the Anafi is a very competent little drone and has caused a bit of a stir in the drone market.

Portability

The Anafi is Parrot’s first 4k camera drone to feature a folding arm design, this makes is much more portable than the previous Bebop design. It all comes bundled in a nice zip up carrying case which is great for travel. It also comes bundled with the Parrot Skycontroller 3 which is foldable to save on save during transport. Anafi weighs only 320 grams and features a respectable 25 minute flight time. Anafi can be charged on the go using USB C which is perfect for charging in the car or through a power bank out and about.

Camera

Of course the Anafi features a 4k camera that shoot 21 megapixel still images mounted on a 3-axis gimbal for professional smooth shots. Parrot have really listened to customers and brought in some nice new features like a 180 degree gimbal system that allows for shooting directly down and even shooting up. It also features a 2.8x lossless digital zoom at HD or 1.4x at 4k which is really a big innovation for drones in that price bracket.

Shooting Modes

Anafi uses FreeFlight 6 which comes bundled with some advanced flight modes like SmartDronies for selfies and CineShots. CineShots has four cinematic shooting modes including Reveal, Epic, Rise and 360° all available at the touch of a button. SmartDronies include Boomerang, Orbit, Tornado and Parabola, it also features a Dolly Zoom effect that uses the zoom feature combined with the visual tracking system to create a motion zoom effect.. It features the popular FollowMe mode and its CameraMan mode keeps the action of the shot framed. If that wasn’t enough it also features a slow motion mode and even hyperlapse. It seems that features like the ‘Follow Me’ mode may be locked down as add-ons as have been the case in the past with the Parrot app.

Flight Features

The Anafi can handle up to 50 km/h / 31 mph wind resistance which is impressive for its size. Parrot also boost the Anafi has super quiet flight noise to keep attention away from your flying. When switched in to sports mode it can reach speeds of up to 53 kph / 33mph. Its flight range is 4km (2.5 miles) which is not the best out on the market but it will suffice for most pilots. Features like geofence allow you plot an area that your drone must remain in and if things go wrong you can use the return to home or find my drone as failsafes.

Competitors

The Anafi has clearly been marketed against the popular DJI Mavic Air, you can check out our Mavic Air vs Anafi comparison for more information how they stack up against each other.

The release of the Anafi has pushed down the price of the Parrot Bebop considerably so if the portability and 4k features of the drone are not a deal breaker its well worth checking out.