C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter Review
Ever since the first rumors about the C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter were released, we’ve wanted to review it. We even contacted the manufacturer and offered our testing services. We liked that, in addition to the 4K camera, it promises a most impressive time of up to 35 minutes of flight. In terms of flight range, it is also over most similar drones. It has pretty much everything you could want from a $ 300 drone.
C-Fy is not a well-known brand of drones. Their portfolio includes only 4 drones without brushes: Faith 2, Faith 1, Dream, and Smart Pro. Some of their known products are also sold under different drone brands. As an example, the first generation Faith can be found as JJRC X12 and Eachine X4.
C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter highlights
- Compact size with folding arms;
- GPS + GLONASS positioning;
- Visual positioning system (Optical flow + ultrasound);
- Real 4K camera with 3-axis image stabilization;
- Creative and fast shot modes;
- About 35 minutes of battery life;
- Flight distance up to 5 km (FCC).
C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter drone overview
Disclosure: We received this quadcopter from RCGoing, to test it and do an in-depth analysis. Although the product was offered for free, all opinions in this article remain ours, without any influence from our partners. The package arrived without problems in just 10 days in front of our door, without additional fees or customs. The box was additionally protected with double-layer bubble wrap. Therefore, RCGoing is again receiving 5 well-deserved stars for order processing.
What’s in the box?
C-Fly packs a beautiful and handy bag with Faith 2 Pro. In addition to the drone and its transmitter, the following accessories are included: gimbal protection, flight battery, charger adapter, USB charging cable, and 1 pair of screw propellers. Other reviewers also received a phone support extension bar. The bag comes with a removable shoulder strap and can accommodate up to 3 spare batteries, a charger adapter, and other small accessories. It also has a considerably large zippered pocket on the outside.
In terms of design, it kind of reminds us of DJI Spark. With folded arms it measures 182x255x74mm, being only slightly larger than the palm of an adult. Weighing 530 grams (1.1 lbs) requires registration in most countries, including the US and Canada. Its folding mechanism works much easier than the one we found on the SJRC F11 4K Pro.
The micro SD card slot is located behind a small rubber flap that protects from dust and prevents accidental loss of the TF memory card. More so, the orange color makes it visible both in the sky and on the ground (whether it is covered with snow or grass).
Price, availability, and options
A cool fact is that RCGoing offers the Faith 2 Pro drone in 3 different colors (orange, blue, and black) with up to 3 flight batteries. The starting price for the “Standard” edition with a battery is $ 310.99. This price includes all the drone accessories presented in this review. For an extra $ 80, you can opt for the “Fly More Combo” package with two more batteries, which offers about 100 minutes of play. A spare propeller set can be ordered for $ 5.99.
Camera and image quality
The C-fly Faith 2 Pro camera is based on a very powerful Ambarella A12 image processor and a Sony CMOS image sensor. It can capture 20MP (5120 * 3840) photos in JPEG / JPEG + DNG format and 4K (3840 × 2160 @ fps) videos with up to 60 Mbps. Thanks to the 3 axes (step + 30 / -120 °, rolling ± 35 °, direction ± 30 °), you can remotely change the camera angle from -90 to 0 °. The micro SD card slot can hold memory cards up to 128 GB.
Update: The latest version of the C-Fly2 app includes a lot of manual settings. You can now change the resolution (4K @ 30fps, 2.7K@30fps, 1080p @ 60fps or 720p @ 60fps), adjust the exposure (-2.0 to +2.0), white balance (Incandescent, D4000, D5000, Sun, Cloudy, or D9000), add video \ photo watermark (date, time or date + time), photo resolution (5120 × 3840, 4192 × 3104, 3648 × 2736 or 3480 × 2160), ISO (Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800 or 1600), FOV video (wide, medium or narrow), scene mode (normal, flash, night, sport, landscape, portrait or sunset) and effect mode (normal, artistic, sepia, negative, black), Vivid or 70Film).
Remote control and range
The beauty of the C-fly Faith 2 Pro controller is that it works like a WiFi repeater. Basically, your phone is talking to the drone through the transmitter. This technique should provide much more reliable communication over longer distances (at least theoretically). C-fly claims that the Faith 2 Pro has a range of up to 5 km (3.1 miles) in FCC mode. This approach is more than welcome, as Apple is considering removing the Lightning port from new iPhone models in favor of wireless charging. If these rumors are true, DJI needs to rethink its downlink cable connection.
There are only 4 buttons (RTH, Takeoff / Terrain, Pause, and GPS On / Off) in addition to the usual control buttons and the power switch. Unfortunately, there is no status display. The RC is powered by a built-in battery, which can be recharged via the micro USB port. By default, the transmitter comes in mode 2 (acceleration to the left), but you can switch it to mode 1 if you prefer.
It has a shoulder button on each side. While the one on the left allows shooting, the one on the right starts/stops video recording. In addition, there is a call button that allows you to change the camera angle.
The antennas are original, so before the flight, you must deploy them as described in the user manual. We performed 3 radius tests at a different flight altitude. Thus, we got the best range at 70 meters.
C-FLY 2 Pro Quadcopter APP
In addition to the live-view (FPV), the C-FLY2 provides extremely detailed telemetry information, such as flight altitude, speed, distance, and battery life. From the app, you can also activate all smart flight modes. While the latest version of the APP offers manual camera settings and other minor changes, it needs improvement. During our range test, it even crashed, which for beginners can be a fatal software error.
C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter battery life
According to C-Fly, the Faith 2 Pro drone is powered by a 3-cell 3100mAh battery that should allow up to 35 minutes to pass. The LIPO package has 4 LEDs indicating the charge level and a power button.
Before the initial flight, we did a buoyancy test to check if everything is in order with the drone and to test the real battery life. C-fly Faith 2 had a hard time on the waterlogged pitch – 27 minutes into the match. It was quite windy during the test, so on a calm day, it could reach 30 minutes or even longer. Unfortunately, the charging process from 10 to 100% takes about 5-6 hours. We think we’ll change the charging adapter by adding a balance port for faster charging.
Flight experience
The good news is that you don’t need to calibrate it on every flight, like a GPS-like drone. We can say it’s ready to fly out of the box. GPS blocking for RTH is done almost instantly. Another cool fact that really impressed us was its speed. The C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter flies very fast, maybe too fast for filming. We expected the FPV to be stable and reliable, instead, it was glitchy, similar to traditional (from phone to drone) WIFI communication.
Either way, the altitude of the flight is actually limited to 120 meters, but you can easily override this safety feature in the C-FLY2 application, allowing extra 500 meters for maximum altitude. For domestic flights, you can disable the GPS, but remember that in this mode RTH is also disabled!
Smart flight modes
C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter offers a lot of smart flight modes. In addition to the usual Follow me, Orbit, and Wyapoing modes, it comes with DJI-like fast shooting modes: Rocket, Dronie, Spiral, Helix, and Boomerang. Unfortunately, these modes don’t work exactly like on my Mavic Air 2 drone.
Verdict
In conclusion, the C-fly Faith 2 Pro Quadcopter drone does exactly what it promises and even more. It has good control autonomy, excellent battery life, and decent camera performance. You do not need to calibrate it before each flight. Due to the dual-satellite positioning (GPS + GLONASS) and the visual positioning (optical + ultrasonic), it glides very stably in any environment (indoor/outdoor).
