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Time to release my Parrot and move on!

Drbgaijin

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2018
Messages
148
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140
Location
Kumamoto, Japan
Website
www.gaijin-eyes.com
I bought my first drone ever in August 2018 - a Parrot Anafi.
I spent the next 18 months flying happily and getting some great scenes from the Kumamoto area in Japan.
Here is a compilation of some scenes from the first 6 months.
VIDEO LINK

Then problems started to arise. In particular the "falling from the sky" problem.
When I got my latest new replacement Anafi two months ago and I went out to fly, I found that I had completely lost confidence and in the past 2 months have only flown 5 times for a total of 20 minutes 5 seconds!
At the same time I begun to notice that Parrot were less and less interested in me and my Anafi.
When I buy a good product, I am usually loyal to the company producing it.
But now I have decided to sell my Parrot Anafi and switch to another company's drone.

I will still pop in here and take a look around from time to time.
I'd like to thank everyone who has responded to my questions with helpful advice throughout the past 2 years.

Before I go, please don't ask where I am getting my next drone from.
This is an Anafi forum!


Regards
Douglas
 
Before I go, please don't ask where I am getting my next drone from.
This is an Anafi forum!
That is right and I really liked my Anafi, in this last months before it fell down.
But like you, I am certain, that bird is not on Parrots priority list, any longer.
That interest died with the introduction of the "USA", I think.

I moved on to the new Air, even still had hope in repairing/exchanging my Anafi but:
Then your report with your replacement came in and my contact with the service was, eh, unpleasant.
I even gave up thoughts, to buy one of the 5 "old" Anafis, sitting on the shelve of one dealer, for half the first price. Still thinking about if not using parrots FF6 but the moded app, would keep it "out off the box", no updates, but then, the 150m height limit is there again and other stuff is missing, methinks
So It was a nice time, 1 1/2 years for me , too, but Parrot is not on my list anymore.

Good, more luck with you next bird
 
[...]
  • Not an open system anymore. Both Anafi and SC3 are closed systems. Unlike Bebop 2, Disco and SkyController 2. They were open system free for altering configurations. So the users could cultivate a culture of fun or personality for the drone. On Anafi, sorry no.[...]
Another thing which points to that the Anafi buyers were just part of the alpha-tests for the USA, methinks!
 
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- I believe the (non-HDR) camera quality is amazing, especially for a early Q2 2018 drone which was positioned between the Air and the Spark
-Also the flight characteristics are second to none; even with 1400dollar/euro Mavic you have horizon tilt when flying downwind
-I have perfectly still images on the beach where you see all the flags waving violently and the waves crashing onto the beach.
- there are no flight restrictions, so that is good as well.

Parrot messed up on many levels, for sure. lack of communication, no customer service and problems with updates (even though I never experienced those).

The biggest problem is the hand landing; they thought it was cool but it needed a infrared distance sensor instead of only this ultrasonic inaccurate for hand landing BS.
Because they wanted feature parity with DJI, they caused a lot of drones falling out of the hand
 
I understand why people say that.

First of all, I think the market position of this thing is totally wrong set by Parrot back to day one. Plus they keep rolling out some upgrades used to degrade the performance. This thing is fated to death. They moved to USA thing is just consequence. Not the root cause.

The customer service has been very awful. Which is well know for decade. The unfriendly of Anafi including:
  • Too small, can't effectively to against strong wind (especially in fly into wind situation is a joke).
  • On Bebop 2, it was nice and the size was suitable for adult who demands flight performance. The size of Anafi is too small. The USA model is back to normal size again. But it's already not a customer model anymore. It's too late.
  • Not an open system anymore. Both Anafi and SC3 are closed systems. Unlike Bebop 2, Disco and SkyController 2. They were open system free for altering configurations. So the users could cultivate a culture of fun or personality for the drone. On Anafi, sorry no. That makes the Anafi has no different comparing to a DJI quad which has no any fun for experience users or demanding users. Thus, no way to cultivate a sustainable society. So Anafi dies sooner and quicker than any other Parrot drones introduced before. In my city, almost no one wants an Anafi.
  • If you talk about the camera quality and use Anafi to compete a DJI drone. You would find out Anafi has just no place. In this point of view. Parrot is just very wrong.
  • The drone's firmware is getting worses upon each update release. Basically the new performance is always a downgrade in range and stablity. Not an upgraded. Which is well known issue.
  • In the latest firmware, it crashes at 30% power left. I can confrim this issue. Because even my Anafi crashed at exactly 30% in firmware 1.6.8.
  • None of its parts is upgradeable due to the restriction of its design. You get the idea. Using of Smart Battery is the most silly part of Anafi. It causes a lot of crashes and restricting the possiblity of upgrades.
It cannot replace my Bebop 2 in the field, sorry, ever. No matter in terms of flight performance, range, stablity and maneuverablity. The Anafi just fails. Even I don't fly an Anafi most of the time. You get the idea how incompetence it is. If I want to take photography or professional video. I would rather to go DJI or just go get a used Mavic. If I would just like to fly. I would rather to go Bebop 2 or Disco.

Just a personal expression as an experienced Parrot drone player.
Well , i have got the Anafi with a 6.2KM round distance recently . Link below

Sep 4th, 2020 06:50AM | General / Overview | Drone Flight Log from Parrot app, version 1.2 on Andrd | Total Kilometrage: 6,276 m | Kuwait | Airdata UAV
 
That was a brave flighttrip, 90+% over water, these battery troubled days!
 

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