Parrot Bebop 2 vs Phantom 3 Standard:The choice may come down to…

The Phantom 3 Standard has a famous reputation for being an affordable all-rounder and quite frankly it is the best choice that can be made. The Parrot Bebop 2 on the other hand is most certainly a very well thought out machine. Both of them are fit for beginners, are lightweight and compact and deliver 25mins flight time according to the drone companies. Both drones can fly faster than the 15 m/s average (36 mph) and have the same flight features. So which one you’ll be purchasing?

Design&Remote Control

Coming to the more hardware oriented side of things is where the Parrot Bebop 2 really starts to shine like the little gem it really is!  The Bebop features a feather light (almost 400g) fully reinforced ABS molded quadcopter frame and finished off with a very light yet extremely durable EPP (expanded-polypropolene) foam body that protects the parrot p7 dual-core CPU and quad-core GPU with its internal 8GB flash memory built onto a magnesium shelf that essentially acts as a cooling plate that shields all software from electromagnetic interference!

The Parrot Bebop 2 has all of its function buttons layed out on an app which is a bit too crowded to concentrate on everything that’s going on. Some of the functions, like the Emergency button, is well marked and at the middle-top of the tablet on the app. All the other nice features that can be utilised when filming or just when flying for fun require going into different menu’s while flying which is not very user-friendly.

The Bebop 2 does become a very well tamed machine once the use of the Parrot skycontroller is incorperated and is definitely a neccessity if you plan on filming with the Bebop. It can be flown directly from the Parrot freeflight3 app (which is free) but is much harder to fly by use of the accelerometer on your tablet or smartphone. The one other issue with flying the Bebop from the App itself is that the drone will only fly as far as the WiFi connection will allow between the drone and the apple or android device.

The Phantom 3 Standard on the other hand, has a iconic white plastic body. It is a very good machine to learn on due it’s gimbal and camera being removable and of course the size of it. It’s a large drone but it is big enough to handle wind quite nicely. It’s GPS system works very well and has all the function buttons marked with nice icons in a very comfortable and easy to operate layout for the user.

The remote control reminds me of a scaled-down version of the one that shipped with the Phantom 2 Vision+. It’s streamlined, so there’s no need for a separate Wi-Fi extension module, and the AA batteries are replaced by an internal rechargeable battery. A micro USB port sits at the bottom to recharge. Four LED lights indicate the charge level, and a single power switch turns it on. A clamp sits on a metal rail to hold your smartphone—it’s big enough to hold an iPhone 6 Plus, but it can’t handle a tablet like the remote for other Phantom 3 models can.

Range

Parrot Bebop 2: 300m (2000m with skycontroller )

Phantom 3 Standard: 1000m

Camera

The Phantom 3 Standard records footage at 2.7K (1520p) resolution at 30fps or 24fps with a 40Mbps bit rate. The Standard tops out at 48fps when shooting at 1080p, but can shoot at 50fps or 60fps at 720p. All standard lower frame rates—24fps, 25fps, and 30fps—are supported for those resolutions.

Image quality is on par with the Phantom 3 Professional and Advanced. The 1/2.3-inch sensor captures 12-megapixel JPG or Raw DNG images at a 4:3 aspect ratio. Image quality is similar to a point-and-shoot camera with Raw support.

While the Parrot Bebop 2 boasts a 14-megapixel camera that can capture 1080p video. For capturing images and video, the Bebop 2 takes a different approach than most drones: it uses a fisheye lens attached to the nose instead of an external camera mounted on a gimbal. Instead of using a remote to manually pan and tilt a camera, you can shift your focus within the wide field of view generated by the fisheye, a trick accomplished through software.

The Bebop 2 has done a nice job improving the quality of video when you are panned straight down to the ground, a viewpoint that is unique to aerial filming and can produce some magical results over interesting terrain.

Unfortunately, the camera itself hasn’t been upgraded much. When you compare the blurry, compressed footage to what some pilots shot at identical locations with camera from Phantom 3 Standard, the Bebop is clearly far inferior.

( Video via Patrick Jourdheuille )

Price

the Parrot Bebop 2 is priced at $483 and $549 with FPV Bundle, while the Phantom 3 Standard is $499.

The last choice may come down to the camera and price.

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To anyone thinking the Phantom 3 Standard is substandard

The Phantom 3 Standard review is from Amazon.

THE GOOD: To anyone thinking the Phantom 3 Standard is substandard. I own one and love it. It is the perfect drone for a first-time pilot, and I know several experienced pilots who buy the Phantom 3 as backup drones. The main limitation of the Standard is that the range it can fly is about half of the higher up models, and it uses fewer GPS signals and has no downward looking visual “eye” like the Advanced and Pro, so it will drift more up down and sideways (but not a whole lot) and not land quite as accurately at the take off point automatically. I give mine a 15-foot radius for safety in landings and sometimes it will land 10-12 feet from take-off point on auto-land. Advanced and Pro stay within 2-6 feet usually. The controller is more limited with older technology. BUT the Phantom 3 standard flies just as fast, and as high, takes just as good video and pics and is just as much fun as the $1000 models for 1/3 the price. In the beginning, you always want to fly within line of sight (Standard’s limitations keeps you there) and legally you are ALWAYS supposed to fly line of sight.

THE BAD: DJI leads a new user to believe all the built-in guidance system will do everything for you from takeoff to landing. And it will, until it doesn’t. That will happen, not and if – it is a when… you have 3 sensitive components talking to each other (controller / drone / smartphone) using both Wi-Fi and radio, plus very sensitive onboard compass and GPS. This overly complicated plumbing will fail at some point and it can happen even a few feet away. At that point, you need to switch to manual control immediately – and hope you have time. I have had compass errors happen 3 feet off the ground in auto land and the dreaded “crazy flying meat slicer with 4 exposed blades” needed to be grabbed by the landing gear to stop it from hitting things as it got confused and would not respond to the controller. By the way: A pair of chef’s slice proof gloves is a great idea at take offs and landings, don’t ask how I know.

RULE NUMBER ONE: Always be prepared for the unexpected! Like flying a private plane the phrase “hours of calm punctuated with seconds of panic” applies here. Best advice for new pilots – learn to do everything manually first – especially landing – because at some point you will need that skill and need it FAST! Also never ignore the long boring preflight compass calibration. I do it every time I set up for flight. Not only does it recalibrate your compass – more importantly – it warns you if there are magnetic disturbances. If there are – my advice is pack it up and move elsewhere, or fly totally on manual control. Ignore any of those warning at your own risk. Compass or GPS warnings for a new pilot mean WAIT or RELOCATE.

SAFETY: Never forget how dangerous these drones are. 3 pounds with spinning blades plummeting from 400 feet is a deadly weapon. Don’t fly over people or roads. Warn folks near by to be aware of the drone. A drone, under the right set of circumstances with a simple malfunction could kill a pet or a human. It’s like owning a gun, be responsible or don’t own it. Never do like these YouTube folks and fly it miles away to see how far it can go or push the limits to see how fast you can swoop over a crowd of people. That is inviting disaster.

THE MIDDLING – should the worst happen with the Phantom 3 Standard, and you make a fatal flying error – more likely when a new pilot – then you are out only $400 or so max, instead of a grand, and actually less if you sell the remaining controller and battery etc. on eBay. Every piece of a DJI is worth money and easy to sell, so pick up the pieces if you can. If you can find your crashed drone DJI may fix it under warranty if it was the drone’s fault, but don’t count on it. DJI at this point in time has horrible support, if that changes, it would be wonderful. I would buy a 3rd party crash warranty over DJI’s coverage any day of the week, if that is important to you.

NICE PART: Battery lasts longest of all the DJI P3 models in the Standard version by 2 – 3 minutes because of fewer sensors. If you step up to a Phantom 3 Pro – batteries and case can come along (But not Phantom 4) and at $100 plus per battery, that is good news. Eventually you will want 3 or 4 batteries so you can fly an about hour with juice to spare for landings, trust me.

BOTTOM LINE: Most of the “Bad” I listed applies to any drone, from $49 to $5000. You can watch at least 3 videos on YouTube of folks crashing $3000 DJI Vision Drones on their very first flight, despite the Vision having much more tech and more sensors and collision avoidance. Sensors or not, if you tell it to go into a wall because you are disoriented and unfamiliar with the controls, it’s going to do what you say. This sad story happens every day. This is why I don’t encourage a new drone pilot to drop a grand or more on a first drone. Fly a while first and you will never get that disorientation that can cost you a fortune, as you will understand the principles and react instinctively to the inevitable unexpected situation. On the other hand, most any drone any cheaper or similarly priced as this is not a “real” drone, so you can’t take as many of the skills with you when you step up. Many drones in this price range have nothing better to step into. Once you learn to fly a DJI and get familiar with their software and controllers – you can fly their whole line pretty much. I haven’t yet mentioned the excellent camera that makes me often joke “for the price of a GoPro, I got a comparable camera with a stabilizing gimbal that flies.” Put all this together and that is why, in my opinion, this is the BEST DEAL in drones right now – by far.

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