DJI was not the first company to release a small $500 dollar drone.
But they did take the Apple approach and took their time to release perhaps the best compact
drone on the market right now.
The DJI spark is basically the size of my iPhone 6s+ and with in minutes of taking it
out of the box i was already flying.
So whether you're looking for your first drone or you want a drone you can take almost anywhere
the DJI spark might be what you're looking for.
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The DJI spark currently comes in 5 color ways… white, red, green, blue, and yellow.
the base model retails for $499 over amazon and includes the drone, one battery pack,
a carrying case, an AC adaptor and USB cable for charging, and some replacement rotors.
The fly more combo retails for $699 and you get everything in the base model plus 2 more
batteries for a total of 3, a charging base for said batteries, propeller guards, a bag,
and a separate controller.
If you're planning on flying a lot, the fly more combo is a good idea.
If you want to pick up the DJI spark, I’ll have links in the description below and ill
keep them updated so you can get the best deals possible.
“and if you're looking for deals on other drones you can checkout my friends over at
rizknows.com for deal alerts on almost anything"
So we’re going to do a quick walk around of the drone.
for starters the DJI spark is heavier than i first expected.
99% of the body is made up of hard plastic, there are some rubber footers on the belly
of the Spark which absorb the shock when you land it and gives it a good amount of grip.
theres a power button on the back and 4 LED’s that act as a fuel gauge.
Under the spark tab you'll find a micro USB charging port and a micro SD card slot which
goes up to 64 gigs.
On the front of the device there is a 3D imaging sensor which help it avoid obstacles and its
already saved my butt multiple times.
Theres also a second sensor on the belly of the Spark that helps it know whats underneath
it.
There are 4 rotors on this drone and no they don't fold up.
the props themselves do fold up though.
The camera of the Spark is a 12 megapixel sensor and you can take pictures and record
video at 1080p 30 frames per second.
The camera sensor is housed in a 2 axis gimbal and it can compensate for pitch and roll.
But it can’t turn like on the Mavic Pro, instead you have to turn the whole device
if you want to get a pan.
its kinda like Christian Bale in batman begins where he has to turn his whole body.
with low wind conditions the camera is very smooth but when the Spark is hit by a gust
of wind you'll see some jerkiness in the video.
Concerning battery life, remember when i said the Fly More Package was a good idea?
On a single charge the DJI spark is good for 16 minutes of flight time.
in order to charge the battery from zero using the micro USB cable its going to take around
an hour to an hour and a half.
So, just keep that in mind.
at this point you might be wondering how do you fly this thing, well you have 3 options.
first is with gesture control.
you basically turn it on, hold it an arms length away from you with the camera pointing
at your pretty little face, and press the power button twice and it will start hovering
in front of you.
You can then tell it to take a picture of you by making a rectangle with your fingers.
If you hold your hand out you can move the spark left to right or up and down a little
to adjust your shot.
this is usually when i start pretending I'm a jedi and i do my best Ben Kenobi impression.
use the force luke, for over a thousand generations the jedi knight where the guardians of peace
and justice in the old republic, before the dark times, before the empire.
Everything up to here works flawlessly.
If you wave your hand from side to side the Spark will fly back and up so it can get a
birds eye view of you.
this is where stuff gets a little finicky.
I've noticed that when the spark is farther away from me it has issues tracking me, or
understanding my gesture to take a picture, or not reading my come back gesture.
You can also control the DJI Spark from your phone.
You'll get a live feed of what the Spark sees with very little lag.
The Spark connects to your phone via wifi and it has a range of about 300 feet.
pro tip, to checkout your drone’s SSID and password take out the battery pack and check
the underside. and finally you can use the separate controller that gives you physical
buttons, since there is so much going on on the touch screen i really wish i had the physical
controller.
But if your drone were to lose connection with your phone, it will either hover in place
until it establishes a connection or it'll fly back to where it initially took off.
the video quality on the DJI spark is good enough for any enthusiast that wants to get
aerial shots of them selves, epic selfies or wants to jump into the drone game.
but obviously the video quality the DJI Spark has to offer is not great for professional
use.
I’ve never had this much fun or anxiety reviewing a product.
The DJI Spark is so easy to fly and the obstacle avoidance system is much more accurate than
i expected.
It was even able to detect individual branches.
But keep in mind there are no lateral or rear sensors and my drone has experienced some
sever crashes.
But it really only suffered minor scrapes and it was immediately ready for take off
again.
the Spark is tougher than it looks.
But just keep in mind, its NOT water proof so don't fly it in the rain or crash it water.
due to its small size the DJI spark is a little harder to control when its windy outside.
but it does try very hard to keep its shot steady.
The DJI Go 4 app is really well made and intuitive.
I haven't had any issues using it what so ever.
obviously you can control the DJI spark with it, but you can also view and edit your captured
videos.
I’m going to be honest, manually editing your videos in the DJI app is a little annoying
so i prefer using the auto edit feature instead.
theres even a simulator so you can practice flying your drone.
when flying your drone with your phone you have a few options.
you can manually control it, you can also use tap to fly, you can use active track which
will automatically follow any objects you highlight, or you can even just use the spark
as a tripod.
over all, I love the DJI Spark.
Its so much fun to use and its so easy to fly.
if you're going to be flying a lot its a good idea to invest in at least a second battery.
You cant go wrong with the DJI spark, but keep in mind for the same money you can also
get the phantom 3 which has a 3 axis gimbal, and a flight time of 25 minutes.
But its much bigger, so you have to ask your self how important is size to you.
But for $500 dollars the DJI Spark is well worth the money.
what ever you decide to record with your spark just know that you can post or share your
videos with any one just seconds after landing.