Reviews

By Luke Maximo Bell

The Parrot Disco is one of Parrot's latest drones. What makes the Disco unique from the rest is the fact that it’s a fixed wing drone. You’re probably wondering what the benefit of using a fixed wing drone is, and the answer to that question is speed and battery life. 

Battery Life And Speed:

The Disco claims to reach speeds of up to 80km/h or 50mp/h, which is faster than any mass produced drone on the market today. In my testing I actually got up to 100km/h or 70mp/h which is very impressive!

The other benefit of a fixed wing drone is the battery life. Parrot claims that the battery life is up to 45 minutes, which is also longer than any other mass produced drone on the market today. In my testing I found that the Disco will do about 45 minutes of flight time if it’s in loitering mode. As soon as you start to pick up the speed you’ll start seeing battery life times of around 35 minutes, which is still very good in drone terms.

Camera:

Like all drones today, the Disco comes installed with a camera. It adopts digital stabilization which means the camera uses only a part of the sensor while cropping and rotating the image to get smoother video. This also allows you to pan up and down with the camera without any moving parts.

The benefit of this is this is that the camera is lighter and there are less moving parts which can potentially break. The downside is that using only a part of the camera sensor drops the quality a fair amount.

The video is still pretty good and suitable for a bit of fun flying and FPV, but it’s not going to match up to the 4K cameras on the DJI drones. It records at a maximum of 1080P at 30 FPS.

Ease Of Use:

The Disco is extremely easy to use. The wings clip on quickly and the controller is simple to set up. Just connect a smartphone or a iPad and the Freeflight Pro app automatically opens. From there the app is very intuitive. It even starts recording video for as you take off.

The drone takes off and lands automatically. You simply push the takeoff button and throw the drone to launch. When you want to land you fly close to the ground and push the takeoff/land button again. As soon as the Disco leaves your hand it rises to a set altitude and loiters in a circle until you take control. It also features a return to home feature which works just as it should when the drone loses signal from the controller. Another cool feature of the Disco is that it’s actually impossible to fly into the ground as the drone will not let you fly below 5m unless you’re landing. The Disco has simply been made as easy to fly as possible. Anybody who has never flown a drone or plane before will have no problem learning.

One disappointing thing about the ease of use of the Disco is that it uses internal storage instead of an SD card. This means you have to connect it to a computer using a USB cable. The storage is good at 32GB and will store almost 3 hours of footage.

Controller And FPV:

The Disco uses the Skycontroller 2 which is a welcomed addition. Unlike any drone controller I've ever used, it actually charges the device plugged in while in use. This is very helpful as these apps drain smartphone battery life very quickly. The controller is very ergonomic and houses dials for camera tilt, buttons for video recording and basically everything you need. The range is advertised at 2km, and in my testing I found this to be pretty accurate. 

The Disco also comes with FPV goggles which work with most smartphones and are comfortable and easy to use. The FPV experience with the Disco is very cool, and a welcomed addition. It's fun and a much more immersive way of flying.

Conclusion

The Parrot Disco FPV is a very unique drone experience unlike any other currently available. It’s fun and easy to use and FPV offers a very immersive way of flying. While the camera quality isn’t as great as some other drones on the market, it’s still good for sharing your experiences! I can honestly say the Disco is the most fun drone I’ve ever flown and fixed wings are a welcomed addition to the world of drones.

Check out it's flight in Cape Town (Noordhoek beach)

[Update] When did the Mavic Pro stock arrive?

By Bernice van der Westhuizen 

PROFESSIONAL VERSUS HOBBYIST

The Mavic Pro was launched on the 27^th of September 2016 and in only a few short hours, has taken the world by storm. Already comparisons, debates and discussions are taking place to determine whether this drone is the ruler of them all.

Before we even dive into the debate between the GoPro Karma and the DJI Mavic Pro, let’s first take a look at how the launch of the DJI Mavic Pro will influence the popularity and relevance of its predecessor, the DJI Phantom 4.

SO LET’S TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT THE FEATURES:

Similar in features, but different in size.

Well almost. The Phantom 4 is still superior when it comes to the quality of the camera, speed and that extra minute of battery life. But this compact drone sure is making a good impression on us and the rest of the world. In my opinion, the Mavic Pro is not meant to be a replacement for the DJI Phantom 4 … it would have been called the Phantom 5 in that case. So what exactly is the difference?

The Mavic Pro is essentially compact and easy to carry or transport. It’s great, that’s for sure - you can read about it more on our Mavic Pro blog. Being so compact with it’s range of features, it’s basically a drone with the convenience of a large mobile device. It’s not as portable as a mobile device but sure as heck more than some other drones and equipment nowadays.

Being able to use the Mavic Pro without a remote is also driving some dronies mad, others however enjoy using the remote and even their tablet rather than their phones. Let’s not forget that a working professional would consider and experience the difference in screen size differently to a hobbyist.

Because of its shape (and location of the legs and propellers), catching it with your hands become a bit risky, although possible. This essentially rules in favour of landing it on the ground, which if you’re on grass can be a bit destructive. This is also an advantage to the Phantom 4 as you’re able to land or catch it respectively.

The major benefit of the Mavic Pro is essentially the fact that it is compact in size with a world of features still at your disposal. If you are smart enough, you’ll realise that the convenience of the smaller drone is also a disadvantage when this copter takes flight. Being so small and light it does not handle stronger winds or weather with the same stability or power as the Phantom 4 (let’s not forget the bigger propellers). 

Essentially if you are using the drone for more professional or business purposes, the quality of the camera and stability of the Phantom 4 would be best suited. On the other hand if you are backpacking and have limited space, the Mavic Pro is the ideal drone companion.

At the end of day we have to be realistic here. You cannot simply compare features alone, it is truly dependent on the usage of the drone itself and the gap between professional and hobbyist is one that needs to be taken into account when choosing between the two. Rather than a replacement to the Phantom 4, I feel it has it’s own unique place in the drone industry, namely for hobbyists.

On a separate note, why on earth is it called the Mavic Pro? (and do we say “Mah-vick or May-vick”)

Let's not forget the hassle of trying to get our hands on some Mavic stock. Seriously. The delay from November 2016 until March 2017 was an unbearable one. Nonetheless, we are glad to finally have stock of this bad boy. (see Mavic Pro & Fly More Combo)

[Update] When did the Mavic Pro stock arrive?

By Emmanuel Mudzielwana:

Remember the Mavic Pro rumours? Well it's finally here.

Spoiler alert people, I'm a huge DJI fan, so be warned, I will express my affection for DJI in this blog.

The Mavic - tiny compact drone sized at Height -83mm, Width - 83mm, and Length - 198mm, weighs more than 200g less to a kilo - to be exact this tiny piece of scientific revolutionary art weighs 743g. In case you are not sure what that really means the height of a 750ml bottle of Coca-Cola and weighs less than that bottle itself. It is about just 3.8 cm longer than an average human hand.

FLIGHT AUTONOMY

This is the first commercial drone in the whole world with an acclaimed to have abilities to land just under 2cm from the point of takeoff if not the exact sport, how you wonder? Well, here is how - this tiny little thing utilises vision cameras underneath it to take a bust of photos without needing your command, and whilst on it on coming back to land use those very pictures to reconfigure itself to that position - now that's intelligence. The obstacle avoidance was taken from the Phantom 4, but they didn't leave it there, it has an advance reaction to obstacles and the location of the forward vision positioning system it is just perfect for it size. Hovers precisely using GPS & GLONASS, the 2 ultrasonic range finders and redundant sensors and the 24 powerful computing cores embedded in drone.

FLIGHT PERFORMANCE

Max ascent speed of 5m/s in sport mode, that means it can fly a height of 2 average human beings - with the other standing atop of the other's head in 1 second, that is fast. Decent 3m/s max speed. Max flight time of 27 minutes (well - know this, none of you will ever reach that time due to the fact that they stated you have to fly at 0 wind, with constant speed of 25kph) with that said, stop hoping for the 27 minutes.

This thing has a range of 7km, and for a drone that fits in your hand, that is very far - believe me you won't see it at 400m from you.

CAMERA

Remember that rumour about the gimbal being 2 axis, DJI did it again - it is the tiniest 3 axis gimbal the company has ever made, and it carries a 4k Ultra HD video camera that shoot 4k videos at 30fps, it is a 12 megapixels with a maximum 8 seconds exposure time. DJI partnered with Adobe so this allows you to use DNG RAW from Adobe.

As I have warned you before starting the blog that this will be a full expansion of my affection to DJI.

The Mavic is the best drone in the world, it is compact intelligent, and not made of cheap plastic but composit material for that feel good moment - well that is all the times you fly the drone

Video from Casey Neistat:

Let's not forget the brilliant DJI video:

You can also check out a bunch of new videos of the Mavic Pro on the DJI's YouTube channel

By Vhengani Emmanuel Mudzielwana

As the drone industry grows rapidly,  we see new inventions  from the new kids in the block 'GoPro' with the introduction of the Karma. Though the Karma host a whole host of features like the detachable gimbal to use on a handheld "Grip" which is practically just a simpler and more practical version of the "DJI OSMO".

The "Grip" to my view has an advantage over the "OSMO" for a simple reason that you get it when you purchase to Karma and from the videos posted by GoPro on they YouTube account appears to be water resistant, can use any camera from the Hero 4 and Hero 5 series compared to the not so flexible OSMO.

Unfortunately the Karma doesn't have any announced obstacle avoidance abilities nor the smart flight modes like "follow me" and "tap flight", you would've thought they'd put this in since this are the advantages of the big guys like DJI.

From the practical side of things,  the Karma with its included Grip offers a simple and quick transition from air to ground footage.

Take a look at the new releases from GoPro (announced on 19 Sept 2016)