Say hello to Bebop, aka the AR Drone 3.0. This is the latest drone from Parrot and it’s a big upgrade from the much-loved AR Drone. It’s essentially a flying camera that can even pipe imagery directly into an Oculus Rift headset, taking flying in the clouds to a whole new level. Sticking out of the center of the small drone is a 14 MP camera with a fisheye lens. This setup, along with some nifty software tricks, allows the drone to capture silky-smooth video — the video can even pan and tilt while the drone hovers. Essentially, thanks to the 180-degree field of vision allowed by the fisheye lens, the software captures more video than it needs. It then uses home-brew software to cut out the desired bits and discard the rest. This allows the angle of view to remain fixed even if the drone is swaying in the wind. This setup gives the Bebop a unique selling point over competitors, including models from Phantom that rely on more traditional camera and gimbal rigs. Like previous AR Drones, connectivity is achieved through Wi-Fi and the Bebop has four antennas and can ride on 2.4GHz and 5Ghz frequencies.

Still, range through Wi-Fi is limited to, well, the range of Wi-Fi. The Bebop can do much more. Along with the Bebop, Parrot is introducing the Skycontroller that extends the Bebop’s range to 2 kilometers. The tablet or smartphone used to control the drone just mounts in the middle of the controller. ar drone parrot iphone 5Using an assortment of antennas and boosters, the controller boosts the controlling tablet’s signal by 36dBm.ar drone for sale in sa If that’s not enough, the Skycontoller can also output the field of view streamed from the drone to an Oculus Rift. ar drone 2 portugalYou become the Bebop. parrot ar drone perth

Early reports state there is a bit of lag. The drone also packs a GNSS chipset that uses GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO data for autonomous flight and return to take-off position. Sadly, like the AR Drones before it, flight time is limited to a paltry 12 minutes. Parrot has yet to release pricing for the Bebop, instead stating it will cost a bit more than the $300 Parrot AR Drone 2.0 and the $1,000 models from Phantom. storm drone 4 instructionsIt’s expected to be released in the fourth quarter of the year.parrot ar drone pour iphone The Bebop will likely be a hit. parrot ar drone ios 5This marks Parrot’s third-generation drone. Thanks to the AR Drones before it, the company figured out the way to market and sell drones to the general public.

The Bebop builds upon the fun consumers had with the novel AR Drones and adds practicality with a high-def camera and extended range. Buy more and saveQuantity DiscountQuantityAmountThe quantity discount will be reflected in your shopping cart Although this item is temporarily on Backorder, you can order it now and it will ship as soon as it arrives. Your card will only be charged once item is shipped. Notify me when in stock Sell or Trade your Gear About Parrot AR Drone The Ultimate Wi-Fi Controlled Quadricopter With the "Power Edition", fans of AR.Drone 2.0 can take advantage of the new high density Lithium-Polymer battery which takes the battery life of the quadricopter from 12 to 18 minutes! The Power Edition includes 2 HD batteries for 36 minutes of flight. In addition to the standard black propellers, the "Power Edition" has 3 additional sets of propellers. Drone 2.0 Power Edition to create an even more exclusive aircraft... The indoor and outdoor hulls have been redesigned to show off a matte black hull giving the AR.

HD Battery (High Density) The HD battery is a three-cell Lithium-Polymer battery with a capacity of 1500 mAh at 11.1 volts with a discharge capacity of 10C. The battery is protected by a rigid case and complies with UL2054 safety standards. The HD battery has two connectors: one for discharging to supply the AR.The estimated flight time with the HD battery is 18 minutes. Recording Sharing in HD During each flight, an HD video is recorded and sent directly to your device. If you want to save longer videos, a USB plug-in lets you store larger files. Pilot Community Keep your flight information (data, locations, photos and videos) and share them with a worldwide pilot community using AR.Discover pilots in action in your neighborhood and view videos from pilots living on the other side of the World! Intuitive Control Download AR.Drone 2.0 is instantly stabilized. Still Further Using the AR.Drone 2.0 Wi-Fi N connection, the AR.Drone 2.0 can go up to 50 meters (165 feet) from you (depending on the Wi-Fi environment).

Drone 2.0 to correct and maintain its position automatically whatever its altitude while being able to withstand wind speeds of up to 15 m/h maximum. Control Assistance The automatic flight control system of the AR.Drone 2.0 is also equipped with an exclusive and patented Absolute Control mode intended for beginners, and it adapts to your skills. The Flip The Flip is a maneuver exclusive to the AR.Be daring and perform flips by simply pressing twice on the screen of your control device. Parrot AR Drone Features Built-In 1280 x 720p HD Camera Capture Video Stills While Flying Fly Using an iOS/Android Mobile Device Stream Video to Your Smartphone/Tablet Built-In Wi-Fi with 165' Wireless Range Multiple Sensors Provide Added Stability Onboard ARM Cortex A8 1GHz CPU with DSP Joypad Absolute Flight Control Modes Performs Acrobatic Flips Barrel Rolls WIRED: Gorgeous race car design. Nose-cam captures high-def footage. Feels very sturdy compared with previous Parrots.

Control app provides an abundance of flight-tweak options. Blade guards clip on and off with ease. Comes with two batteries. Requires a smartphone or tablet. Nose-cam footage has white-balance issues. Flight controls imprecise unless you add pricey joystick controller—and it’s not sold separately. No follow-me or flight-plan options. A complete failure in every way Solid with some issues Very good, but not quite great Excellent, with room to kvetch It’s hard to single-handedly kickstart an industry, only to watch competitors soar past. Back in 2010, Parrot’s AR.Drone quad-copters all but owned the skies. Today, smarter, faster fliers from the likes of DJI and 3DRobotics have clipped Parrot’s wings. Enter Bebop, a high-flying beauty unlike anything else in the air. It’s a lightweight, nimble, downright sexy drone capable of capturing 1080p video out of the box, no pricey GoPro required, for $500. It vastly improves certain elements of the AR.

Drone’s design, at the same time maintaining the versatility of its app-powered controls. So why isn’t this thing more fun to fly? It’s certainly fun to look at. If automakers ever build a quad-rotor car, it’ll probably look like the Bebop. Its rounded, forward-sloping top half and colored accents (your choice of red, blue, or yellow) lend a supercar-like sense of speed, even when it’s sitting still. Batteries clip easily onto an upper deck and lock down with an admittedly cheap-feel Velcro strap. Thankfully, there’s now a power button, so you don’t have to disconnect the battery when you’re done flying. And Parrot bundles two of them, each with a promised (and tested) flight time of about 11 minutes. You also get a pair of cool, curvy blade guards, which clip on and off with admirable ease. That’s in stark contrast to the AR.Drone’s clunky foam shell, which never seemed to fit snugly. However, the new guards necessarily leave a large gap in front to accommodate the camera’s field of view, and unnecessarily leave a smaller gap in back, so the protection is not total.

Speaking of the camera, it’s a 14-megapixel fisheye built into the Bebop’s nose, which faces front but angles down. Drone enthusiasts will remember that model’s dual cameras, but here it’s just the one. Thanks to the higher resolution and fisheye lens, though, you can perform limited digital panning from within Parrot’s FreeFlight app—which, incidentally, receives a live video stream from the camera. That app remains a blessing and a curse. For starters, it’s a requirement, not an option, so even if you spring for the dual-joystick Skycontroller (more on that later), you’ll still need your Android or iOS phone or tablet if you want to modify any flight settings or view live video. And if you’re flying outdoors, even the brightest screens can be hard to see. Likewise, onscreen controls just plain suck. Make no mistake, they work, they just lack the precision and responsiveness of tactile joysticks—and that’s why the Bebop isn’t as fun as it should be.

It’s really difficult to perform tight maneuvers when you’re constantly having to glance back down at the screen and reorient your thumbs. The bitter irony is the app affords the kind of granularity you simply can’t get from a typical dual-joystick controller. A few taps in the Settings menu lets you set an altitude cap, tweak rotation speeds and maximum inclination, and even modify various camera options like exposure and white balance. You can do all this in real-time, either before liftoff or while the Bebop is in-flight. The flipside is that if you don’t go poking around the settings, you might find yourself wondering why your drone won’t fly higher or faster. The good news/bad news? Parrot’s Skycontroller dramatically transforms the Bebop flying experience, providing perfectly balanced joysticks, several handy one-touch controls, battery and range gauges, and extended range for the drone itself. It can also pair with FPV glasses like the Oculus Rift, a setup I’m dying to try.

The Skycontroller is a huge, fairly heavy rig, with a neck strap for easier toting, but absolutely essential if you want to enjoy the Bebop to its fullest. Here’s where it gets weird: You can’t buy a Bebop and then decide to add the Skycontroller later. Your only option is to get them as a bundle, which drives the total price tag to $900. Oh, and the extra range afforded by the Skycontroller’s own Wi-Fi antenna? It’s nullified if you keep your phone or tablet in the mix. If you fly without it, you lose the live feed and advanced settings. I tested the Bebop both with and without the Skycontroller. Control preferences aside, it’s a precise and stable flier, even when there’s a breeze. Indeed, the Bebop relies on a smorgasbord of sensors to maintain its position, and I occasionally witnessed it “leaning into” the wind in an effort to avoid getting blown around. Though it couldn’t withstand strong gusts, it’s pretty good at holding position in lighter breezes.

Best feature by far: the return-to-home icon (or button, if you use the Skycontroller). One press and the Bebop flies back to where it launched. With the Skycontroller, the Bebop zips around as quickly and nimbly as DJI’s earlier-gen Phantom models, which I’ve also flown. It’s quite fun this way, and thanks to the app’s ability to restrict pitch, altitude and the like, you can easily switch between beginner and advanced pilots and back again. Alas, unlike a lot of modern drones—even significantly cheaper ones—the Bebop has no down-facing LEDs to help with location or orientation. The color accents help a bit, but they’re mostly visible from the top of the drone. It’s also a bummer that Parrot’s long-promised flight-plan option, which would let you program airstrikes waypoints for the Bebop to fly, remains MIA, and company reps couldn’t commit to a release date. There are no plans for a follow-me feature, which is already available from at least a few competitors.

As for video, the Bebop records it to 8GB of onboard storage, good for roughly 40 minutes of 1080p flight footage. You can transfer photos and videos over Wi-Fi to your mobile device (assuming it has room), or connect the Bebop directly to your PC for much faster downloads. The video quality is extremely mixed—better than what you get from other built-in cameras, but nowhere near that of, say, a GoPro Hero 4. In my tests, the camera did a terrible job correcting for brightness, even after fiddling with the auto-white-balance settings. The higher I flew, the darker and murkier the images became. Low to the ground, without so much sky in the mix, video looked crisp and colorful. More fiddling helped, but at the expense of precious flight time. I’ll make this simple: The Bebop is lots of fun to fly if you get it with the Skycontroller, not so much if you don’t. The companion app affords lots of great flight options, but it’s missing a few key features—and using it limits your flight range.