COMPLETE GUIDE TO DRONES

Can the latest portable 4K drones turn you into an instant professional aerial videographer? T3 clocks up the air miles to find out

Become an instant expert with our jargon-busting guide, and discover what to buy and where to fly

WHAT’S ON TEST…

1 Parrot Anafi Parrot’s 4K folding drone has its sights set on the Mavic Air’s crown. The Anafi’s slinky design and range of unique shooting modes, including the Jaws- style Dolly Zoom, will tease out your inner Spielberg. $916, parrot.com 2 DJI Mavic Air The Mavic Air is DJI’s portable, foldaway flyer, with unrivalled aerial stability and premium footage on the go. Obstacle-avoidance sensors and an abundance of auto flight modes are a boon at this price. $1,129, dji.com 3 Yuneec Mantis Q DJI-like styling, voice control and a hair-raising Sport mode make Yuneec’s Mantis Q a real contender. Add in a 4K camera and facial recognition, and there’s little separating these drones on paper. $684, yuneec.com

Once upon a time, camera drones fell into two camps: you had your top-end, professional drones, capable of hauling cinema-grade cameras skyward and capturing footage that was once only possible with a helicopter; and smaller consumer drones, fun for flying indoors as well as out, and with enough tech to snap a few shareable videos and pics.

Now there’s a new breed of drone that packs all the formidable technology, confidence-inspiring safety features and camera firepower of professional drones into portable powerhouses, while still promising all the ‘throw and go’ fun of compact drones. With these drones it takes just minutes to unpack, get airborne and start shooting in stabilised 4K. Drone technology moves fast.

Each drone here comes loaded with a 4K camera mounted to a gimbal, and folds down alongside its controller for stowing in a bag or suitcase. All three sync with a companion app, the nerve centre for tweaking settings, and for initiating take-off and landing.

When it comes to nailing dynamic shots, a variety of auto shooting modes means you can nail panoramas, fly pasts and so much more, with just a few taps of your smartphone screen. What’s more, face recognition and visual tracking tech make it easy to follow a person or object (in a non-creepy way, obviously).

DJI has always been king of the drones, so we’re here to find out if the new 4K folders from Parrot or Yuneec have the goods to knock the Mavic Air from the sky.