One is the Mambo, which is very compact and very definitely in the toy category. Since then Parrot have developed two lines of drones, both building on that heritage. The coverage, especially the indoor hull, has clearly influenced perceptions of drone design to this day but the flying camera, at that point, was mostly potential. The AR.Drone was a consumer product with broad appeal Geeks loved it, the phone community was excited, toy manufacturers knew they had to keep up and of course photographers & videographers were very excited. That was less than two years after Apple had introduced the iOS App Store (remember when an iPhone had just the built-in apps?) and yet excited journalists were now able to use the handset to ‘fly’ down the corridors of Las Vegas hotels and, at the touch of a button, perform an awesome flip. Size wasn’t an issue – there were no competitors and no established market – but at 55cm (22in) diagonal wearing its outdoor hull portability wasn’t great (this was swappable with an even bigger 4-ring polystyrene hull that shields all four propellers for indoor flight). You may not even know that Parrot essentially created the drone market eight years before the Anafi when, at CES 2010, they showed the world the AR.Drone, an exciting new flying toy which had a built in camera which could be viewed through an iPhone screen. Cameralabs followers might not have heard a lot about Parrot’s drones, and that’s forgivable. Parrot’s most sophisticated drone to date, it’s pitched squarely against the DJI Mavic Air, undercutting it on price and boasting some unique features. The Parrot Anafi is a mid-range drone with 4k video and a powered gimbal.

Parrot drone controls