- Joined
- Mar 3, 2019
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 11
Good morning one and all.
Posting for several reasons.
Firstly, it is indeed true that people generally post when they have a problem which can give a somewhat negative impression of venturing in to the world of drone ownership. So I though it appropriate for once to post and say that I collected my drone from Argos on Friday evening, charged the battery and controller, have flown it about half a dozen times, and so far everything is working precisely as it should. I haven't been too adventurous yet, these things are capable of so much that I feel it would be very easy to overstep your capabilities, but I've taken enough photos and video so far to get a taste of what is possible. As a bit of an oldie (when I done computer studies at tech it was binary!), I'm fully aware that there is a helluva lot of gates being opened and closed in there, so read the instructions from the people who designed it and see what it can do and what it can't do, but don't expect that just because it can do this, and can also do that, that it should automatically be able to do the other. Electronics doesn't work like that and never will.
Secondly, while the above (probably) applies irrespective of whichever branded drone you buy, this is specific to the Anafi. My first drone was a cheapy, bought to me as a birthday present. It had no GPS, couldn't be flown if the leaves were moving on the trees at all, and the camera was sh1te. But I really enjoyed flying it and taking videos of the surrounding area (even if they were rubbish) so the family all gave me money at Christmas for an upgrade as they knew I would never spend the money on something like that for myself otherwise, that was Christmas 2017!!!
Now one thing that anyone who knows me will never accuse me of is 'not thinking things through'. I'm an over-thinker, borderline obsessive with tendencies towards OCD, even this very post was going to be just a few lines and it's turned in to a parable! Anyway you can probably imagine how all this meshed in to the upside down world of drone selection, I read reviews, I watched reviews, I then read new views and watched new reviews, I phrased my plight every different way possible and fed it in to every different search engine available but nothing was clear and obvious.
So ultimately I decided to base my purchase on different criteria rather than the drone itself. Due to how troublesome they all are (see paragraph one above!) a priority was buying one in a store if possible, spend sensible money (my 'Christmas' money was £500) so that when it either flys away or crashes in to water (which they all do) it's as small a punch in the guts as possible, but as good a camera as possible within that. So DJI Spark it had to be, there was no other alternative as that odd looking Parrot thing was plainly hopeless!
So we then researched DJI Spark specifically but once you started looking deeper the picture changed, it had it's issues as well, but most importantly it seems they stopped making them in November last year and it's days are numbered. Throw in the noise, woeful flight time, and the whole DJI 'big brother' thing and the picture changed. Oh well, just have to put plans on hold for a while till something more suitable arrives on the market, maybe have a bit better look at that Parrot thingy in the meantime.
So we then researched Parrot Anafi specifically and it turns out it's not that hopeless after all. So many comments from people who bought it as a 'starter' drone only to find out that it was actually all they needed, people with a clatter of expensive drones and they invariably use the Anafi most of the time as it's so simple, speedy, and uncomplicated to get in to the air, people who done all the research like me and bought a Typhoon H, Phantom or sometimes even a Mavic but don't fly much anymore as it became too much 'hassle' so they bought an Anafi for it's portability only to find that it's what they should have had all along, etc, etc. So suddenly it became clear that it was what I should have been buying all along irrespective of my change of criteria, and the more I use it, the more I have this confirmed.
Captain Drone, Dustin Dunhill, etc, etc, make excellent videos, and they help to put in the long dark winter evenings, but unfortunately they are too homogenised to point you towards what you should actually be buying. Everything has pluses and minuses, so if you highlight them all equally you give the impression that the drones are essentially equal, but that's not an accurate comparison. For example, the Anafi's big minus consistently flagged up is lack of obstacle avoidance, yet you could reverse, fly sideways, or rise in to something just the same with an Autel Evo. Yet the Anafi,s plus points, quietness, size, weight, ease of connection, flight time, are of benefit every single time you use it.
So if you're looking for one drone to take decent pics and film with as a hobbyist, and you happen to stumble across this post sometime over the following months, it turns out there actually IS a clear cut choice of drone that you should be buying, the Parrot Anafi. It took me almost a year and a half, and I nearly made a balls of it a few times, but I have no doubt that I've ended up with exactly the right drone out of what was available.
* - Disclaimer: I case anyone is wondering, I am not connected with Parrot in any way shape or form, just hope this might actually help someone in their quest to get the right drone for their needs.
Posting for several reasons.
Firstly, it is indeed true that people generally post when they have a problem which can give a somewhat negative impression of venturing in to the world of drone ownership. So I though it appropriate for once to post and say that I collected my drone from Argos on Friday evening, charged the battery and controller, have flown it about half a dozen times, and so far everything is working precisely as it should. I haven't been too adventurous yet, these things are capable of so much that I feel it would be very easy to overstep your capabilities, but I've taken enough photos and video so far to get a taste of what is possible. As a bit of an oldie (when I done computer studies at tech it was binary!), I'm fully aware that there is a helluva lot of gates being opened and closed in there, so read the instructions from the people who designed it and see what it can do and what it can't do, but don't expect that just because it can do this, and can also do that, that it should automatically be able to do the other. Electronics doesn't work like that and never will.
Secondly, while the above (probably) applies irrespective of whichever branded drone you buy, this is specific to the Anafi. My first drone was a cheapy, bought to me as a birthday present. It had no GPS, couldn't be flown if the leaves were moving on the trees at all, and the camera was sh1te. But I really enjoyed flying it and taking videos of the surrounding area (even if they were rubbish) so the family all gave me money at Christmas for an upgrade as they knew I would never spend the money on something like that for myself otherwise, that was Christmas 2017!!!
Now one thing that anyone who knows me will never accuse me of is 'not thinking things through'. I'm an over-thinker, borderline obsessive with tendencies towards OCD, even this very post was going to be just a few lines and it's turned in to a parable! Anyway you can probably imagine how all this meshed in to the upside down world of drone selection, I read reviews, I watched reviews, I then read new views and watched new reviews, I phrased my plight every different way possible and fed it in to every different search engine available but nothing was clear and obvious.
So ultimately I decided to base my purchase on different criteria rather than the drone itself. Due to how troublesome they all are (see paragraph one above!) a priority was buying one in a store if possible, spend sensible money (my 'Christmas' money was £500) so that when it either flys away or crashes in to water (which they all do) it's as small a punch in the guts as possible, but as good a camera as possible within that. So DJI Spark it had to be, there was no other alternative as that odd looking Parrot thing was plainly hopeless!
So we then researched DJI Spark specifically but once you started looking deeper the picture changed, it had it's issues as well, but most importantly it seems they stopped making them in November last year and it's days are numbered. Throw in the noise, woeful flight time, and the whole DJI 'big brother' thing and the picture changed. Oh well, just have to put plans on hold for a while till something more suitable arrives on the market, maybe have a bit better look at that Parrot thingy in the meantime.
So we then researched Parrot Anafi specifically and it turns out it's not that hopeless after all. So many comments from people who bought it as a 'starter' drone only to find out that it was actually all they needed, people with a clatter of expensive drones and they invariably use the Anafi most of the time as it's so simple, speedy, and uncomplicated to get in to the air, people who done all the research like me and bought a Typhoon H, Phantom or sometimes even a Mavic but don't fly much anymore as it became too much 'hassle' so they bought an Anafi for it's portability only to find that it's what they should have had all along, etc, etc. So suddenly it became clear that it was what I should have been buying all along irrespective of my change of criteria, and the more I use it, the more I have this confirmed.
Captain Drone, Dustin Dunhill, etc, etc, make excellent videos, and they help to put in the long dark winter evenings, but unfortunately they are too homogenised to point you towards what you should actually be buying. Everything has pluses and minuses, so if you highlight them all equally you give the impression that the drones are essentially equal, but that's not an accurate comparison. For example, the Anafi's big minus consistently flagged up is lack of obstacle avoidance, yet you could reverse, fly sideways, or rise in to something just the same with an Autel Evo. Yet the Anafi,s plus points, quietness, size, weight, ease of connection, flight time, are of benefit every single time you use it.
So if you're looking for one drone to take decent pics and film with as a hobbyist, and you happen to stumble across this post sometime over the following months, it turns out there actually IS a clear cut choice of drone that you should be buying, the Parrot Anafi. It took me almost a year and a half, and I nearly made a balls of it a few times, but I have no doubt that I've ended up with exactly the right drone out of what was available.
* - Disclaimer: I case anyone is wondering, I am not connected with Parrot in any way shape or form, just hope this might actually help someone in their quest to get the right drone for their needs.
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