parrot ar drone 2 |
Had you thought about purchasing a drone about years ago, most people would have labelled you as crazy. But nowadays, over the past year at least, that is what the joys is all about. They have been gaining in popularity & increasingly commercial applications have developed for them. The main competitors are Parrot who have now released the two.0 version of their AR Drone for amateurs, & DJI Phantom which priced at over $1,000 is for the more serious players in the drone arena.
parrot ar drone 2
The AR Drone is priced at about $300 & up depending on whether you opt to go for any additional features such as GPS based auto-pilot, an additional battery or additional memory in the type of a USB plug-in stick. This makes it more affordable & it would not surprise me if it becomes of the top Christmas gifts this year!
HD Video
of the most important features nowadays is the ability to film high definition video; in the event you require to display your drone video art to friends, then this is essential. The nice news is that HD video cameras have become cheaper & cheaper nowadays & both the Parrot AR Drone & the DJI Phantom have them.
parrot ar drone 2
So which drone ought to I buy?
Say you are a beginner; you watched a few drone videos & are all excited about being able to fly it around your city & take pics from perspectives & angles you could not access before.
GPS Navigation
As historicallyin the past mentioned GPS is optional for the AR Drone & can be had by purchasing a 'flight recorder' for about $140 off Amazon. However, the DJI Phantom comes with GPS capability as well as a 'return home' feature built in.
Remote Control Capability
Apart from the cost difference between these drones, the way they are controlled is the next largest difference. Parrot, with help from Italian researchers have created an intuitive app for iOS & Android, called Parrot Freeflight. The AR Parrot two.0 drone fundamentally acts as a WiFi hotspot which connects to your smartphone or tablet & this enables it to stream HD video directly to your device.
You can also control the drone by tilting your phone forward, backwards, left or right, as you would in a racing or flying game on the iPhone. The Freeflight app also lets you directly share the videos to Facebook, YouTube or Vimeo directly from within the app.
parrot ar drone 2
Other differences between the drones comprise of the flying range; 25 minutes on a battery charge for the Parrot & up to 40 minutes for the DJI Phantom. The DJI Phantom is also slightly heavier & some reports say that it provides better stability in windy conditions, but both drones are stable for that. Replacement parts are basically available to buy from Amazon for both models.