WHILE other flying-camera makers have gone after enthusiasts, the Parrot Bebop is very approachable to average consumers looking to start shooting aerial video and photos without a big investment.

                  Made from foam, strong plastic and fiberglass, the Parrot Bebop is the safer, gentler quadcopter that you can pilot with the smartphone in your pocket. In an attempt to capture some of those enthusiasts, however, Parrot perhaps stretched a bit too far, making something that was too pricey for beginners and with not enough features or performance for experienced users. It's good for what it is, but in category that's growing rapidly, it's a tough sell.

It can capture video at 1080p full-HD resolution; the AR.Drone 2.0 is limited to 720p. Video is recorded to the Bebop's 8GB of internal storage (there's no microSD or SD card slot) in MP4 format. Photos can be captured as JPEGs or Adobe DNG raw format.

Unlike the AR.Drone 2.0, the Bebop has a GNSS chipset with GPS, Glonass and Galileo built in. The chipset allows the Bebop to return to its take-off location on its own and hover in place 2 meters above the ground. The Bebop can fly in winds up to about 24 mph (40 kmh) and can reach speeds of around 45 mph (75 kmh).

When you can't get a GPS lock, such as when you're flying inside, a vertical camera and ultrasound and pressure sensors keep it from drifting while hovering at up to 8 meters (26 feet) above the ground.

Being so small and light means you don't have much room for a big battery. Held in place by little more than its cable connector and a velcro strap, Parrot's batteries give you up to 11 minutes of flight. Outside, I was able to get up to 10 minutes, but that was mostly just hovering in place while recording video. High winds, doing flips and fast flying will shorten that time, and unless you want to drop from the sky, you'll want to land well before the battery dies.