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Buying first real photography drone, is Anafi good choice for me?

ufosaboveus

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Hi guys, I wanted to ask the experts a quick question. I am not new to rc flying as I have been doing it since a teenager. I have flown toy drones for a couple of years and am now looking for my first real photography drone. I am interested in the Anafi strictly because I like the 180 degree tilting camera and the higher resolution. My question is do you think the Anafi is the best choice out there that can tilt the camera up rather than just down? I did some looking and seems like the only other ones I could find that tilt up are really expensive at $1500 or more and I am hoping to keep my investment in drone photography under $1000. I will not really need long range but would like to be able to go a mile away at maximum allowed height when out in the country with no interference and at least 1/2 mile range at max height when flying in the city. For those that have been flying a while, is that doable with the Anafi? I plan to use my galaxy S7 phone with it if the program is compatible with my phone.

thanks in advance and I am reading up on the Anafi threads to try to educate myself.
Matt
 
Welcome on board. Whether the Anafi is the drone for you us a question that only you can answer. It us like buying a new car. Different people have different requirements and will favour different manufacturers. As this is an Anafi forum you may find that people here are a bit biased towards it. I like mine but I have never owned another off the shelf drone, although I have built my own, so I cannot compare. I would suggest that you read some of the threads in the forum, look at some of the videos and photos taken with the Anafi and make up your own mind.

In most countries you are only allowed to fly line of sight and in most situations the Anafi WiFi is up to the task. you do need to keep the controller pointed towards the Anafi to get the best signal. You also talk about flying at maximum height for 1/2 mile in cities. You do not say where in the world you are but I would check your local laws to ensure that you fly legally and safely.
 
Just thought the same thing. We don’t know where you are living but usually its strictly forbidden to fly in cities, above people, or outside your line of sight. Also there are usually height limits (and the Anafi itself is restricted to 150meter height for this reason).

Concerning your main question: I personally just switched to the Anafi as I think it offers the best package for the prize you can currently get. With its 21MP Sensor, its flight time of 25 Minutes and its lossless zoom feature, it even competes with the new Mavic 2 Zoom which costs 2-3 times as much.

The tilting camera of course is a special plus you wont find on other drones (I only know about the GoPro but that drone wasn’t really good).

The Anafi can film in 4K 30frames (or other options like 24fps, cinema 4K and so on). It offers a LOG profile for both filming and pictures, which may be an important point if you especially interested in its camera features. There are other image „styles“ to if you are less into editing your images (like „natural“ or „intensive“, for a more color rich image). The zoom feature is a real lossless zoom, which the Anafi manages to achieve be using the additional sensor megapixels which are not needed for the required resolution. So depending on the filming resolution (4K or 1080P) you can zoom without quality loss between i think *1.4 and *2.8 (would have to look that up. of course you can always enable lossy zoom to zoom in as far as possible but you will then loose quality when you zoom further than those points.

For photos, the Anafi will take 16MP images in normal mode, and 21MP images is its „wide“ setting. But this will give you the full frame image without lens correction, leading to a fisheye effect you will have to correct yourself afterwards if you don’t like that.

And of course, there are also multiple panorama modes like a classic horizontal pano. The Anafi will save the single images so you can stitch them yourself if you want but also create a stitched image of 8000*4000px.

Not sure if you are interested in its tracking and/or follow modes, but there are multiple automatic filming scenes which a great. One thing to mention is that its tracking feature allows you to actually reposition the tracked subject in your frame via drag&drop, which allows you to get great shots. It’s follow me feature also uses your phones GPS and barometer so it can track you even when it cant see you.

On and the Anafi is really really quiet. That’s a big plus in filming as you wont disturb people around you as much as with other drones. Hope that helped you out a bit, any further questions just ask :)
 
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I second that. I also do photography with a DSLR, working with Raw files, processing with Lightroom...

Anafi cannot compete with a DSLR. But as the ‘best camera’ is the one you have with you when you need it... its resolution and lightweight (and silence) makes it the best ‘portable’ solution for me.

Anafi’s DNG Raw files are now perfectly integrated in Lightroom and other pix editing softwares...

Hope this helps (I’d love to try the new Mavic Pro 2, but the price and weight are to high for me now...)

— Edit — The Galaxy S7 is marked as compatible with the Anafi in the Android devices compatibility listing of the sub-forum here (not easy to find)
 
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Oh and regarding image quality. Here is a interesting comparison with the DJI Air and Mavic Pro in which the Anafi surprised with its good quality
 
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I like my Anafi and it has the most flights but the 4K picture quality falls short especially when viewed on a big screen.

If I have the willpower my Phantom 4 Pro V2 produces a lot sharper image.

Sample videos to put you to sleep. No post processing.

P4PV2

Anafi 2019, not 2018. Goofed again :)

Anafi is good in the price range and is easy to transport.
 
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I wonder why you have such a quality difference in you Anafi video (didn’t watch your examples yet). What settings did you use? I guess 4K 30 frames?
 
I wonder why you have such a quality difference in you Anafi video (didn’t watch your examples yet). What settings did you use? I guess 4K 30 frames?

All shot in 4K30P.

The P4P has a 1" sensor and the Anafi does not. Also Anafi has to process the image in real time as it has electronic image stabilization in one axis.

A P4PV2 Still Photo
DJI_0227.JPG
 
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Thanks guys for all the great input. I live in north texas in the country. We also have property with a hill top out in west texas. My primary use will be for aerial photography and as you might have surmised from the user name... I am a self proclaimed ufo nut. I have spent a small fortune on gear to do my sky gazing including nice 8" telescope, night vision scope, Nikon P900, Nikon P1000, Sony alpha mirrorless... but one thing I haven't got yet is a drone. I plan to use it to shoot video of clouds and the con trails from jets, etc. (I know it sounds nutty but is a fun hobby for me). I promised the wife I would not get carried away with this so although I love the Mavic Pro 2 zoom and have a fiend with the phantom 4 pro that he swears by... I wanted to get something I could grab and go when I travel for business and catch some quick video footage in the evenings after work. The Anafi seems like a good bang for the buck option. I think I am going to just go for it and see how I like it. I will be reading up on the Anafi to see if I can educate myself a bit before it gets here but reserve the right to ask more questions once it gets here.

I did want to verify will it work with my existing galaxy S7 phone? I am kind of a cheapskate when it comes to phones so hate to upgrade as long as my current one works fine.
 
thought I should add a coupe of things.. I have read the current regulations for drones and understand I will have to register and follow the height restrictions as well as airspace restrictions around airports. That part I understand pretty well as I have my pilots license and an airplane. Oh and for you guys that think the drone restrictions are tough... you should see what hoops general aviation pilots are being forced to jump thru. New equipment requirements that will cost upwards of 10k to get your plane in compliance and that is just the beginning. The FAA is clearly trying to push GA pilots out of aviation. Hopefully they are not going to try the same thing with drones.
 
That actually looked pretty cool Agustine. All flying is good flying as they say. I do bet the freedom of doing that would be a real blast but wife would probably not be keen on the idea as she already worries about me when I fly in anything but ideal conditions.
 
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Hi guys, I wanted to ask the experts a quick question. I am not new to rc flying as I have been doing it since a teenager. I have flown toy drones for a couple of years and am now looking for my first real photography drone. I am interested in the Anafi strictly because I like the 180 degree tilting camera and the higher resolution. My question is do you think the Anafi is the best choice out there that can tilt the camera up rather than just down? I did some looking and seems like the only other ones I could find that tilt up are really expensive at $1500 or more and I am hoping to keep my investment in drone photography under $1000. I will not really need long range but would like to be able to go a mile away at maximum allowed height when out in the country with no interference and at least 1/2 mile range at max height when flying in the city. For those that have been flying a while, is that doable with the Anafi? I plan to use my galaxy S7 phone with it if the program is compatible with my phone.

thanks in advance and I am reading up on the Anafi threads to try to educate myself.
Matt
Well if it's for you or not is a tough thing to answer. However if you want to see what the Anafi is capable of check out Robin Blanchard's last 2 videos on YouTube. Pretty impressive stuff.
 
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