DJI Spark

amazon DJI Spark reviews

DJI wants everyone to be able to fly a Drone. At least, that’s the message it seems to be sending to Spark ($499), the company’s smallest drone. It’s a selfie drone that you can interact with just by waving your hand. It’s also a short-range quadcopter that can be controlled with your smartphone, complete with forwarding obstacle avoidance and object tracking. Add an accessory remote, and you’ve got a very capable bird with a top speed of 31mph and a strong range.

Could it be everything for everyone? Not really. It works well for selfies and snaps, but battery life is short, video editing isn’t as easy as promised, and cruising with your smartphone is painful. If you want a drone but don’t want to worry about learning to fly one like a pro, the Spark is worth checking out. But if you want a more versatile quadcopter with a compact body and are interested in learning to fly it manually, the DJI Mavic Pro is the more powerful, albeit more expensive, choice.

Design

Spark ($479.00 at Amazon) is tiny. It measures 2.2 x 5.6 x 5.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 0.3 kg — DJI points out that it weighs more than a soda can. It’s not foldable, though the propellers fold for easy transport — you don’t have to take them off for storage, so the Spark is always ready to fly. You can buy it in Alpine White, Lava Red, Meadow Green, Sky Blue, and Sunrise Yellow. As you can see, our review model is Sunrise Yellow.

It uses microSD memory to store pictures and videos. The removable battery promises 16 minutes of flight time per charge, although, in our field tests, the best we managed was 12 minutes. It’s still better than the six minutes you get with a small selfie Drone like Dobby. There’s a micro USB port, so you can plug the Spark into a portable battery pack or your laptop to recharge it. Additional batteries cost $49.

This camera has a 1/2.3-inch CMOS image sensor, the same type you’d find in a typical Pocket Superzoom Camera, and slightly larger than the sensor on an iPhone. The lens is a fixed 25mm f/2.6 equivalent, capable of capturing 12MP stills and 1080p video at 30fps and 24Mbps. You don’t have the option to shoot at 24fps for a more cinematic look and don’t have the 60fps or 120fps ability to capture smoother footage for motion playback slow. It’s not a serious video tool like other DJI Drones, like the Mavic Pro ($999.00 at DJI), supporting 4K recording and additional frame rate options. The two-axis mechanical gimbal keeps the footage steady during flight.

A variety of conventional safety features are incorporated into the design. You get GPS/GLONASS satellite navigation to keep it stable when flying outdoors and automatically bring it home if interrupted or on-demand communication. The forward-facing sensor detects obstacles up to 16 feet away, and the Spark is smart enough to change its flight path and fly around them. And you’ve got the Vision Positioning System (VPS), a downward-facing sensor array that keeps the plane hovering in place when flying indoors without GPS assistance.

Spark is stable. It moves in place with ease, even indoors, without the assistance of GPS stabilization. I flew it on a cool late Mayday, and it stayed in place under light winds, albeit at a fairly low altitude. We expect DJI’s Drones to be solid in the air, and the Spark doesn’t disappoint in any way.

Registration

Spark will severely limit the functionality of the current product line if you do not sign up via a DJI Go account. That follows a court ruling stating that the FAA does not have the authority to charge you $5 to register a Drone.

Spark weighs more than 0.3 kg, so it will fall under FAA registration requirements if they are still intact. When you see and hold the Spark in your hand, it’s easy to see that the FAA’s 0.3 kg figure is a bit silly – the average adult pigeon weighs about 0.4 kg, and the FAA didn’t try to adjust it tweak them, at least not yet.

With the FAA temporarily unregistered as a business, DJI got involved. I’m the one responsible for Drone ownership, and I’m fairly confident that DJI’s implementation will be a nominal concern for most novice pilots. It’s not impossible to fly the Spark — don’t fly it on a busy street or in a crowded sports arena — but its small size and weight, along with limited range when using a smartphone, are not impossible. Smart do control, which means less cause for concern.

If you are vehemently opposed to registration, don’t buy the Spark or any DJI Drones for that matter. There are alternatives — Yuneec Breeze is similar in design to Spark, and at press time, Yuneec won’t require you to set up an account for full functionality.

Flying experience

You can be wary of placing a device with a rapidly spinning propeller in your hand. I have been cut by a Drone propeller before, and it was not a pleasant experience. But as long as your fingers don’t extend into the sparkly colored top, you’re safe. A DJI representative says you can cut yourself if a finger catches on the edge of one of the blades, but due to their folding nature, you won’t do much damage if your finger slips near the center of the support. I have not tested this personally, but be careful. If you’re going to be doing a lot of manual takeoffs and landings, invest in a set of propeller guards—they add $19 to the cost.

Spark is small enough to fly indoors, and its VPS keeps it hovering in place even without GPS assistance. I don’t recommend flying it in some small confines, but you can break it down for some interior airports if you have a large living room or space. Brokers should pay attention to this.

Gesture controls are attention-grabbing features that Spark is very new, so let’s talk about them first. You hold the Spark in the palm of your hand, the camera is facing you at hand level, and quickly tap its power button twice in quick succession. The Camera rotates up and down until it locks on your face. Its front lights flash green, and the engine revs up.

Take a step back and place your palm towards the Camera. The front light will turn green when it recognizes you. Move your hand to the left, and the drone flies to your left. It’s cool — this is a technology meant to turn heads. However, the initial shot is pretty tight, so you’ll want to get the drone further away from you for better shots.

Waving your hand back and forth causes the drone to pull up and back, about 15 feet in each direction. It will keep that distance and continue to track your movements. It’s a fun way to take a selfie that shows your surroundings. If you want to take a photo, just put your hands together, imitating a photo frame. Raise your arms straight up in the air when you want the Spark to land. It will fly towards you and hover in place. Place your hand underneath it, palm up, and the drone gently lands. It’s pretty neat.

What if something goes wrong? If you can’t control it and fly with only gestures, you can wait until it runs out of battery and land automatically. You can take it from the air and twist it, so the propellers are perpendicular to the ground — they’ll shut off instantly.

Before using gestures to fly, you must do an initial setup in the app. Currently, there’s no way to trigger Spark to start recording videos with gestures, so you’ll need the app for that too.

If you’re only interested in Spark tracking your moves on the ground, the gesture controls will get the job done. But if you want to take advantage of some edited video footage, or if you want to fly manually using the on-screen controls, the DJI Go 4 app (available for Android and iOS) is the way to go a necessity.

There are four basic auto shots — Circle, Dronie, Helix, and Rocket. Circle and Helix are similar; the former revolves around a defined subject in space, and the camera is always locked to the target for the duration. The Helix is ​​similar, but the radius and height increase as it progresses. Using Circle is pretty easy; I can gauge how much free space is around me and make consistent, safe trajectories.

I’ve had more difficulty with Helix. The shot took the drone farther than I expected, quickly. It’s very easy to abort footage using the app, but you need to be aware of the drone’s movements and keep your phone ready to do so. My recommendation is to avoid using Helix if there are trees anywhere nearby. Spark has obstacle avoidance, but only in front, so you can still hit something when you fly sideways.

Dronie is similar to the shots you get with gesture control, starting up close and pulling up and back to reveal your surroundings, but it recedes further. Rocket is also a performer — it starts over your head, with the camera pointing straight down and pulling straight up to show your surroundings.

There are several special still photography modes. It’s easy to take 12MP photos with the shutter button in the DJI Go app. You can change the shooting mode to access Depth of Field and Panorama photos. First, lock onto an object and fly straight up about two feet. It combines several images into one 1.6MP JPG, which is said to blur the background like a wide aperture SLR lens. My attempts to use it ended up being subtle, barely noticeable, and unlike what you get with the full-frame camera or even the portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus. The image below on the left is the standard image and on the right is the same image with the Shallow effect enabled.

Panorama mode is a bit more useful for photographers — Drones fly horizontally or vertically and stitch wide panoramas together. These special photos are only saved to Spark’s memory card; they don’t automatically show up in the DJI Go app like other images do, which is a curious oversight.

Manual flight with the app is done via the on-screen controller. They function like physical controls on a dedicated remote, with the left stick adjusting height and yaw and the right stick moving the drone through space. The experience is rather clumsy compared to using the real remote. There’s no physical feedback to your actions, and you’ll find yourself looking at the screen more than the drone in flight, with your finger obscuring the camera view.

The top speed is also quite low with a smartphone. I’ve seen up to 12mph in my flight logs, with movement averaging around seven mph. You are limited to close-in flight, with a geofence of approximately 327 feet (100 meters) around you and a maximum flight ceiling of 164 feet (50 meters).

It improves operating range to a theoretical 1.2 miles, ups standard cruising speeds, adds a Sport mode that moves the Spark through the air at 31mph — but disables obstacle avoidance, so be careful.

The remote is set to sell for $149 separately and comes with the Fly More Combo, a $699 bundle that includes propeller guards, extra propellers, extra batteries, and additional charges. Simultaneously add three batteries and a carrying case. But if you’re thinking of spending $699 on the Spark, then you should think about stretching your budget to get the $999 Mavic Pro.

where can you get a DJI Spark online

DJI Spark with Remote Control Combo (White): Buy it now

DJI Spark, Fly More Combo, Alpine White: Buy it now

DJI Spark Portable Mini Drone Alpine White (Renewed) (Standard Unit): Buy it now

Easy to use

Spark is supposed to be easy to use. It was something like this. Don’t get me wrong, getting a Drone into the air using gesture control is simple, and the fact that it will automatically recognize you and track your movements after taking off from your hand is a treat.

The DJI Go 4 app supports all of its current models, from the popular Phantom series to the industrial Matrice series, using a single interface. And it’s not an “easy” shout. If you want to take a quick shot of a Rocket shot from the top of a mountain, you have to tap the icon, change the shooting mode, drag a box around you; then press Go to start shooting. There should be an easier way to do this — and faster-because 12 minutes in the air go by so quickly. In contrast, the similar Yuneec Breeze has an app with large, easy-to-understand icons on its home screen for each autopilot.

I don’t think DJI should ignore the DJI Go 4. Veteran pilots are used to its design, and the app does a lot. But I’d love to see a simpler, more streamlined interface as an option for Spark owners who want to bring their drone up to take a quick snap and then come back without having to drill through a few screens menu to get there.

The app does a better job of minimizing video editing work, but it’s not perfect. For the best control, you still want to copy files from the memory card to your computer and edit the footage yourself. Desktop editing is the way to go if you care about quality — the DJI Go app outputs video at a low rate of 5.3Mbps, while the Spark shoots 1080p30 video at a much sharper 24Mbps bitrate.

For general use, the auto-editor in the Go app will get the job done. You can let it work on full autopilot, trim a short 30-second video out of eight clips, and add music and transitions. The app was supposed to recognize the most interesting parts of your video and include them, but I found that it was hit and miss—some very weird footage ended up in the first part. It’s easy to change things around. If you see a shot you don’t like, you can delete it and shorten your video or tap it to manually select the video you want to shoot in its place. If you want to give the app some guidance, you can choose which clips are eligible for automatic trimming first.

You must remember to copy the video from Spark’s microSD card before you start editing. When you first look at the app, you’ll see all your clips. These are low-quality cached videos from a live stream from the Spark to the app. Please don’t use them, as they are blurry and pixelated. Watch a clip and click the Download Original button when Spark is connected via Wi-Fi to download the full-resolution version.

Sometimes this will work fine. Sometimes you’ll get an error message telling you the clip isn’t on the card, even if it is. There is another download option in the top left corner of the editor that allows you to browse Spark’s storage and download videos on a clip-by-clip basis. That worked a lot better for me. But it was a bit slow, copied video at a meager 4.3Mbps, and it put a strain on the Spark’s battery — I saw a 15% drop in life after transferring about 10 minutes of video. Battery life is a big concern, and this doesn’t help. If you have a phone with a MicroSD slot, you can skip this process by simply inserting the card into your phone.

It’s long and short: There’s room for DJI to improve its Go app. Yes, you can wave and move Sparks through the air. But setting up the footage and editing the video isn’t a magical experience.

Conclusion

The DJI Spark delivers one of the best tech living room tricks I’ve ever seen. Launch and control a Drone with a wave of the hand is very interesting. But as you go deeper, some problems become apparent. Spark is considered the drone for everyone, but I think most users will be disappointed with the battery life, making at least one spare a necessary accessory. When you combine it with the rather disappointing experience of manual flight via smartphone, it makes for a $699 package, which includes an extra battery and a remote, which is more appealing — but more expensive.

The DJI Go app is another potential pain point for first-timers. It’s a great thing for experienced users, but I think it leaves a lot to be desired for beginners who don’t want to dig into its interface to get the hang of it. A simplified interface for Spark is needed to make its various automated shots more accessible. Likewise, the in-app video editing experience is impressive. It is simply an experience that is not as transparent as DJI promises.

Even with my complaints about the battery, the Spark flies 12 minutes longer than competing mini Drones, and the additional battery isn’t expensive. While it takes some digging and digging to set up automatic video footage, the photos themselves look really good. The Spark itself is a good choice if you want a drone for short aerial shots but don’t want to dig into the details of manual flying.

Yuneec Breeze is Spark’s closest competitor, selling for $50 less and recording in 4K. We’re still testing it, so we’ll see if the actual video quality lives up to the 4K promise. Also available in this price range is the Parrot Bebop 2 FPV — Its camera isn’t as good as you get with the Spark, and it doesn’t have a lot of automatic shooting options, but it does include a remote and can fly about 20 minutes. Of course, there’s our favorite compact drone, the $999 DJI Mavic Pro. It’s the buy if you’re more serious about a small quadcopter. It flies further, and while there’s no gesture control, you can still get ahead of obstacles, longer flight times, and stabilized 4K footage, as well as multiple autopilot modes.