- Check this out, this is the DJI Spark.
Look at this little thing.
I realize I'm like two years behind
on making a review for this.
I'm actually out here in Spokane, Washington
and I figured I'd get this as a gift for somebody.
I myself fly the Mavic 2 Pro.
It's awesome drone, one inch sensor,
the Hasselblad camera.
I highly recommend that camera
and has quite a few professional features
but this here is priced at a high end consumer drone
and we're giving this to someone
who hasn't really flown a drone before.
Might not even like flying drones.
Definitely not the type that cares so much
about HD or 4K or 24 frames per second,
60 frames per second, any of that.
I think he just wants to fly a drone
and have that experience.
So we got this but my question is, how good is this exactly?
Right off the bat, I don't really see that many options,
so I don't see a setting to change frame rates
or anything like that.
I think it just wants to shoot full HD.
I do see some manual camera controls here.
So I'm not going to review this drone
as like a professional filming device,
So, I'm gonna look at it more as just like a consumer toy.
Someone that's just trying to casually get into it
and have a drone they can fly
and have a good time flying around.
Starts up just like the Mavic and got the controller here.
(drone buzzing)
Wow that thing is tiny.
That is adorable.
It's got some sensors on the front and the bottom.
I don't think there's anything up top or on the sides.
Wow, this thing is cool.
Oh, the Mavic I can fly really, really far
and not worry about losing reception
but here I'm already starting to see
a little bit of choppiness.
Sport mode is nice and zippy.
I'm liking that actually.
It's saying it's doing about 30 miles per hour right now,
there's no winds right now.
So, I'm getting about that 30 miles per hour,
so that's not bad.
The gimbal itself, I don't think is meant to be
like a super stable camera
'cause you can see when I turn the drone,
the whole thing turns.
I'm in sport mode now, so definitely pivots.
Out of sport mode it won't pivot
so as long as you're out of sport mode, you can do pans
and not have to worry so much about the pivot,
but yeah again, I'm losing reception,
so the signal for long distance,
it does not seem to have that capability
but again the goal here is to remember
that this is a $400 drone
and not a $1200 or $1500 drone.
I see, doesn't look like it could turn that much
without rolling that camera.
This is actually kind of fun.
It feels almost like a little race drone.
The signal is definitely getting broken up a lot
and I know for sure that the Mavic
would have zero issues with this kind of distance.
Okay, so it's weird,
sometimes when it's close by,
it'll start getting really choppy
but now I'm 1500 feet out that way
and still got a pretty good, strong signal
out of it right now.
The image quality's actually pretty good
and again if you don't care about the settings,
of you know HD and 4k, it's actually pretty good.
I mean, it's a beautiful image
and I think a lot of people
that are planning on buying this is not gonna be looking
to color grade it or try to match it in
with a certain type of camera or cut.
Because you're pretty limited
on the types of settings you're on,
you know picture profile, all that stuff.
Here, you want to give it a shot.
Okay, so you have a little drone right?
Oh yeah, you're pretty comfortable with this ha?
That's pretty good.
I'm a little terrified right now,
I'm not gonna lie but that's pretty good.
Apparently if you're too lazy to pull out your remote
or your phone, you can fly this thing
just by gesture controls.
I'm kinda sketched out right now
'cause I'm so used to having a controller.
So, I'm gonna double tap it.
Okay, it recognizes my face
and it's just gonna take off.
(drone buzzing loudly)
Okay, go this way.
Okay, now I wanna take a selfie.
I don't think this is working.
How do I get it to go away?
If I do this, it's supposed to fly away.
Let's see if it works.
Come on.
Bye-bye, you gonna have to do it slowly.
Okay, so this whole gesture control thing,
I don't think it's, oh snap!
Go away!
I think I'm done, please come down to my hand now.
(drone beeping)
Okay, at least it knows how to land.
I think I'm just gonna stick to this controller.
The active track on the Mavic Pro, fantastic.
Let's try on here.
So you think you can outrun this drone?
Okay, go ahead and run.
Subject lost.
It could be because there's just not that much contrast.
Yeah, maybe try the grass.
Another thing to consider also,
is that this drone is about two years old
so there is a pretty good chance that as soon as you buy it,
the Spark 2 or Spark Pro will come out
and it'll be 100 times better.
(laughing)
The biggest issue I'm having is the lose image transmission
'cause on this screen it gets pretty choppy, pretty fast.
Like I can still see the drone and it gets choppy
which is rarely the case with the Mavic 2 Pro.
So, I got my Mavic Pro now and I'm back to what I'm used to.
Also, we're hitting about 43 miles per hour
when the Spark hit about 30 so,
in sport mode it's definitely could be a whole lot faster
and I haven't had even a slight jitter,
in terms of the image transmission.
It is crystal clear.
I haven't even seen one frame skip or anything like that
and now I'm almost at 3000 feet away.
I can barely see it now,
should start bringing it back.
And of course, I could also dial in my settings
a little bit more with this Mavic Pro.
So I got my shutter where I want it,
I can control the aperture.
Yeah, picture profile settings,
so you can color grade it if you want but you don't have to.
So for me, I'm the type that wants a little bit more
of that professional image out of the drone so,
this is a huge step up from that Spark.
Again, we are talking about a drone that's more than
three times the cost of the Spark so.
There's a lot of trade offs here
but the Spark itself, as like a hobbyist's drone,
it's awesome.
I once paid almost two thousand dollars for a drone
that's not nearly as good as that Spark right there
and that was not that long ago.
So these are charging.
What's awesome is that I'm in a rental car,
it's a Chevy Tahoe and in this power outlet right here,
it's able to charge these batteries
but my Mavic 2 Pro has too much of a power draw
so actually won't charge off this.
So for the Mavic 2 Pro we did have to get
a more powerful power inverter
so that we can charge everything on the go,
but these little guys, not a problem.
And it is a DJI so it is one of the more
reputable brands for drones.
Do you think your dad's gonna like the drone?
- Yeah, I think he's really gonna like it actually.
- Okay, if I ever need to seek permission
to enter the family, he'll be like
No!
And then I'll be like,
well remember that time that I gave you that drone
and he'll be like Ah, fine.
- Oh, so this is a bribe.
- Hopefully we can give it to Kari's dad before I crash it,
so I apologize in advance if it's broken.
- Can you please buckle up?
- Uber driver, don't tell me how to live my life.
- I also keep seeing people grabbing
and turn it on it's side.
I think that might be how you easily turn it off.
(drone buzzing)
Oh yeah, there you go.
That was easy.
I also heard you could just turn your phone into a remote
in case you don't wanna get the remote
which would actually be a little bit cheaper.
I'm not expecting much out of being able
to control it with this phone
because it is just using the phones Wi-Fi.
So there's no way it's gonna get out very far.
I mean, yeah I suppose you could access
some of the basic features like Quickshot.
Alright, let's try this Quickshot real quick.
We're rolling.
And there are no rear sensors
so you do, holdup!
Why is it flying out that way?
Come back.
This does not make me feel good at all.
Oh, somebody's calling me so, oh hold on.
Hello.
It just like wandered off on me, it just started flowing.
I'm just gonna stick to using that remote.
I'm ... that was scary.
Alright, so a little bit later that day
the plan was to go out with Kari's dad, Jason
and show him how to use it.
Get him excited about it and be like, surprise, it's yours.
But unfortunately...
So, we flew it out that way a little bit
and I think it got hidden behind that building
so the transmission signal is definitely
not up there with the Mavic.
Well, hopefully it's smart enough to make it's way back.
So, after about 15 minutes of it not coming back,
we basically realized we need to go on a rescue mission.
So, we're on a little adventure now.
(laughing)
You basically just need to get
right onto the other side of this building.
- [Jason] Yeah, it looks, yeah, it's almost like
it's right in front of us.
- So Kari got a hold of the manager
and he ended up being super cool.
He has a Phantom himself.
We then realized it actually didn't land
in the back of the building, it was on the roof.
Luckily, we happened to get in touch with the right guy,
'cause he had access to everything.
- There it is.
- Right there, oh man. (laughing)
We got it.
It was on the roof.
So yeah, that's the story of how I gave Kari's dad
a drone right after I crashed it.
(laughing)
He was still super happy about it.
We changed out the propellors and it still flew fine.
Now I must admit I messed up!
You are always suppose to be able to see
the drone keep it within your line of sight
When I was trying to get the shot I accidentally
crept it behind this building
So the building was in between me and the drone
Which is a big no-no
So My Bad, I'm sure that's why we lost connection even though we were relatively close
to the drone. It activated Return to Home so it climbed 30 meters
And Flew Straight towards us.
Turns out the front facing sensors are deactivated if the drone's at a certain distance.
Of course it clears the building but not this obstacle though.
So yeah, as soon as I finally fetched it back
I adjusted the Return to Flight to be a little bit higher.
Learned my lesson there.
So overall I would say the Spark
is a great drone for the price.
I wasn't thrilled with my experiences flying it,
but I think it's just because I've been spoiled
by the Mavic 2 Pro.
For 400 bucks you're getting front facing sensors,
GPS, a pretty decent camera. 1080p, 30 frames per second
and the Spark itself is 399 currently with the controller
and I think it's like 330'ish without the controller
but I definitely say at least get yourself that controller.
Obviously my biggest issue was the range with it
and the lack of solid connection
but again if you're still more of a beginner
at flying drones you really shouldn't be sending them
that far out there anyways,
so I think for their target consumers,
who's generally going to be flying it within
a 100 maybe 200 feet of where they're standing,
it's a pretty solid option.
And I think DJI's done a pretty good job
at creating their product line
obviously you have the Inspires,
that are thousands and thousands of dollars
then there's the Phantoms, the Mavic Pro's,
the Mavic Air, then the Spark
and each step of the way,
there is a noticeable difference in performance
so you really look at the product line
and you get what you pay for
and most of you watching my channels
are film makers or content creators,
I would say skip the Spark.
At least go up to a Mavic Air 'cause you're gonna get
a lot more capability out of that Mavic Air,
The Spark, you're limited to 1080p, 30 frames per second
and as you guys have seen with the Spark
you can't fly too fast
without the gimbals getting maxed out
and giving you all these jarring motions
but if you're more of a hobbyist and you wanna travel
and just get a different perspective with your shots,
the Spark is super fun
and yeah, there's still that anxiety of losing it
and it really sucked when I thought I lost the drone
but at least it's not an $800 drone or a $1500 drone.
Anyways, lets read some comments from our last video
which was about becoming a professional photographer.
So I had my friend Ryan here,
he's a professional photographer, super talented.
We talked about how he got into the game,
some of his experiences.
Top comment was Michael Wozniak.
Use me as a Like button for the single strand of hair
draped over Potato Jet's forehead.
What?
You guys notice like the most random things.
Tyler Cheeseman says, can't wait to unlock Gene
in the next Tony Hawk game.
That would be the saddest unlock ever.
(laughing)
You would have to punch in like
such a complicated combo for me to do an Ollie.
Potato, you should sit on a gimbal
'cause your head jitters a bit while listening to Ryan.
(laughing)
What?
What are you guys even talking about?
Okay, okay, I see it now.
(laughing)
Man, you guys point out stuff
that I would have never even thought of.
(laughing)
Every video has so much information
and still has humor in it.
I love your videos, alright,
let's see a kick flip montage now.
Guys, you guys have to stop asking me to do a kick flip,
that is incredibly difficult.
I might get hurt.
Tech V8 says do a kick flip.
Double like for a kick flip at the end.
(sighing deeply)
There's a lot of requests to do another kick flip.
I gotta do it, I gotta do it.
Let's go!
(skateboard wheels thumping)
This time I wanna do it while I'm moving
instead of doing it while I'm standing still.
(skateboard wheels thumping)
I don't know, you skateboarders tell me
what I'm doing wrong.
You guys can look at my video,
watch my form,
tell me what I'm doing wrong.
(sighs)
Respect to all the skateboarders out there
that can do this easily.
It's a lot harder than it looks.
It looks easy.
You guys make it look super easy.
It's not easy.
It's a lot harder to do while you're moving,
doing it while standing still seems easy now.
This is tough.
Oh my God, how many attempts was that.
Oh God.
I honestly should have brought some water,
I didn't realize this was gonna take so many attempts.
Really thirsty.
I'm really exhausted guys, I think I'm gonna have to
go get some water and come back later.
I feel like such a failure right now.
I'm such a (beep).
We'll be back though, we'll be back.
(soft gentle music)