Parrot confirms NOT exiting consumer drones. Focus on next-generation ANAFI platformHaye Kesteloo

- Jul. 20th 2019 4:21 pm ET

FEATURE

French drone maker, Parrot reached out to DroneDJ to stress that they are NOT exiting the consumer drone business. Their message comes in reaction to our story from yesterday.

Parrot is, however, retiring their older product lines including mini drones in favor of the next-generation ANAFI platform. See below for all the details.

Parrot NOT exiting consumer drones

Parrot is not exiting the consumer drone business. Please correct your story as soon as possible.

Older product lines including mini drones, have been retired in favor of the next-generation ANAFI platform. Our focus on future production and development of consumer products with the ANAFI platform has been well documented through our recent financial/strategic communications.

Parrot’s flagship ANAFI is the newest and most advanced drone platform from Parrot and represents the future for the company. Introduced to the market just one year ago, ANAFI continues to be a platform for Parrot’s newest drones with new features and software updates introduced regularly. The ANAFI lineup incorporates multiple configurations for both consumers as well as professionals. Parrot also offers other specialty hardware, software and services in its growing ecosystem for the commercial drone space, with innovative solutions for agriculture; 3D mapping, surveying and inspection; and defense and security.

See below for some of the new improvements to the popular Parrot ANAFI drone since its introduction.

New photo and video features have been introduced over the last year. For example, like the best cameras, the FreeFlight 6 application displays the histogram and zebras to adjust the exposure of a shot. You can then access advanced contrast, style and sharpness settings. Also, each shot can be directly recorded in JPEG rectangle or DNG wide format to benefit from raw files, without deformation and to be able to rework them as you wish.

ANAFI has also added new visual effects such as Panorama 360 °, Little Planet and Tunnel. With one click, the drone performs a fully automated shot. The FreeFlight 6 application provides automatic processing and assembly of files for an impressive rendering.

Follow Me mode has been optimized to be more precise and powerful. In addition to tracking a pilot or a target subject at a predefined distance, it is now possible to modify the framing and the movements of the drone during the follow-up. The drone can then move around the moving subject, taking a shot from a new angle.

To guarantee perfect flight safety and assist users during the landing phase, ANAFI is equipped with a new ultra-precise Smart Return Home function. During take-off, ANAFI records its GPS coordinates with one of its sensors, positioned under the fuselage, and takes a snapshot of the area. Once the Return to Home mode is activated, ANAFI uses the GPS data recorded and the image captured during take-off in order to position itself accurately on the area and finalize the landing procedure.

To simplify the viewing of videos captured by the ANAFI 4K HDR camera, it is possible to access files directly from the FreeFlight application – all the files recorded on the SD card of the drone without need to download on a smartphone or computer.