DJI Spark, Mini Drone, Lava Red

** Full disclosure - no one has given me any equipment or freebies to do this review. All equipment I own and purchased myself. ** DJI did a nice job on this smaller quad. Flies well with Controller and not bad with the phone alone - though not as well with the controller. A couple of things you should be aware of and frustrated me when I got it: 1) Controller wifi password is DIFFERENT and on the back of the CONTROLLER - not to be confused with the wifi password on the drone (under battery) which is different. 2) The drone has to be switched between phone only and controller modes with the power button. 3) As usual manuals really aren't very clear. I ended up watching a few youtube videos to get me going right & quick. 4) Just assume there is a new release of the software/firmware when you open the box. Go ahead and connect everything together and apply it. 5) Assume your going to need to practice ( a while) to get the hand gesture features to work. Its not trivial, but once you get it down they work about 80% of the time. Good enough for a quick selfie. Quality of photos is very good and on par with my Iphone 6s or better. Video is great too - prefer 4k but will live until DJI does a firmware upgrade on these to 4k. Love that they put Sport Mode as a switch! That is a blast and works surprisingly well (Phantom 1 days in equivalent of "sport mode" was just plain scary.. DJI has made this extremely useful now. ) Compared to Dobby and S4 Quads - hands down no question DJI is 200% better and more stable. BETTER PRODUCT, BETTER COMPONENTS ETC..I tried both of the others out and they just don't fly well and they require constant tuning while flying. DJI - no such issues. Lastly - but a good one - THANKS DJI for the BAG (fly more package) not only is it designed to fit the Spark but it ALSO fits the Mavic! Seriously a great detail and one I will personally use a lot. I don't take both at the same time so the bag is a great feature FUTURE ITEMS: 1) 4k video firmware - should be easy to do and won't compete with Mavic. 2) Still think DJI should have a LOUD audible ping every 10 seconds if it is powered on for over 10 mins but not connected to controller or phone. This would be a HUGE HIT for those who have lost a drone and are attempting to find it. No hardware needed, just use the speaker - crank it to full and ping noise every 10 seconds until the battery dies or something connects. You could also do a disable of this feature too. Probably get a month of pings! More than long enough to find your lost toy... I've got (or had and lost..) every consumer quad DJI has built. Phantoms 1-4 (pro) Vision, Mavic and now the Spark. Why would I own the Spark? Its really about use cases; I wanted something small (tiny) with a great camera that I can take photos/videos while traveling. Mavic is close - but it is big unfolded and it garners a lot of attention where as the Spark is pretty discrete. I can take that out and fly it and not get a bunch of attention. The Mavic I use for distance - especially out on the ice (lake freezes over) or out in the field. Phantom 4 doesn't get much air time these days though arguably a better camera than the Mavic. I use the 4 for when I want pro quality shots. Similar story w/ my 2 with a Gimbal and Gopro. I still have my Phantom 1 which I use as a trainer for my kids and as well for my friends who want to try a DJI out before they buy. I've tried just about every quad manufacturer and returned them all.. DJI is just a better quad maker. They leverage their Professional equipment (Remember DJI's been a pro Quad company MANY years before ever selling a consumer drone.) and put it into their consumer lines - just can't beat that.

I can't say enough good stuff about this drone. As someone who has operated a few other drones, this one packs in a TON of great features in a very small and easy-to-use package. After about 100hrs of flight time on this, I feel much more comfortable using larger, more expensive drones, not to mention more confident in knowing what I want when searching for a professional drone to purchase. The first great function of this drone is it's size. Not only is it much easier to transport than even the Mavic Air, but it's much less noticeable when flying. Because it's so small, people tend to take it much less seriously and worry about it less when it's flying around. Larger drones tend to bring a lot of attention with them, as well as the occasional angry passerby who wants to tell you off. Also, a smaller drone means a quieter drone. Second, I quickly found both personal and professional applications for this drone. While I'm not a licensed commercial operator, I would bring this drone along for professionals to use as a scout. We would figure out our shots beforehand, then have much more battery life with the larger drones to use when we really needed them. We could also get an idea for base settings, making setup quicker for our larger cinema drones. This made our flight time that much more valuable, allowing us to get more coverage since we didn't need to scout our shots with the big drone and use up the life of its batteries. Finally, for personal applications this drone shines. The 1080p downsampled from a 4k sensor looks great, even with the digital stabilization applied. Also, I find the auto settings on this thing to be VERY forgiving. Not only does the image look great straight out of the camera without the application of expensive ND filters or lots of editing, but it takes up so much less space than it's 4k counterparts. A 32Gb card can last MUCH longer than the possible flight time of this drone, so I've been hitting record before I even take off and capturing every moment of my flights without ever coming close to filling up its storage. I would definitely recommend this drone to first-timers trying to learn, enthusiasts who want an easy drone for small video projects, and pros looking for a good little scout drone. Can't wait to give the Tello and Mavic Air a try, as I've already flown the Mavic Pro, and have a colleague who owns a Mavic 2 Zoom. Would love to see an upgraded version in this form factor, like a Spark with the camera capabilities of the Mavic 2 Zoom, or even just a smaller version of the Mavic Air!

I bought a cheaper drone first thinking it would "do the job" all I thought I needed was an "ok" drone and "ok" camera for my needs. Within the first 10 minutes of flight I realized I needed something better. I saw reviews for the DJI Spark everywhere, they were great for the most part, I saw some footage of its camera and I was impressed, I decided to buy it and see for myself. First impression? Amazing quality, DJI really takes it to the next level, from packing to the smallest details, it comes in a small box, inside there's a hard case for the spark and a shoulder bag that fits everything in the fly more combo and then some. The drone looks, feels, and even smells like top notch quality, after flying a cheaper drone, flying this thing was like driving a corolla and then a new mercedes benz, smoother, more quiet, the controls are so crisp and responsive, the app and operation are perfect. The stabilized camera is amazing, the gimball really works great and even though it is only 1080p and 12MP the video and pictures are really good! Things to consider? Buy the fly more combo, don't even think about it, you will need the extra battery, the remore controller and why not some extra propellers too. It is a no brainer, in fact, I bought an extra battery (for a total of 3) and an extra set of propellers just in case, then, after using the drone I realized there are more accessories that are kind of a must have such as the gimball/camera protector for transportation, the usb cable for better phone/controller connection, landing gear (small legs so the drone is not so close to the ground) and maybe some lenses to improve your video and picture quality. Anyway, the drone performs amazingly all around. If you don't need a 4k drone, this thing is the best you can buy for the money, it is such a pleasure to fly and an amazing piece of equipment to own. Batteries charge in under 1 hour on their charging dock, flight time is 13 minutes consistently, about 14 when I keep it low and mostly hovering, takes 1 minute to get flying, my previous drone took about 5-10 minutes to setup. Enjoy! ____________________ Update: I have been flying over the beaches and ocean in Cozumel Mexico, yesterday I flew with very strong winds and the Spark performed great! It never drifted away, it responded and handled like any other time. I am impressed!

I am new to drones and I started with brushed motor, low cost, drones just to figure out whether or not I liked flying drones. The less expensive drones are okay but can be frustratingly difficult to fly and the overall quality is generally cheap and flimsy feeling. They remind me of 1980s Chrysler K cars, they go but they always leave you wishing for MUCH more. I saw a man flying a DJI Mavic and I knew that I wanted a "real" drone. I don't need cinematic quality cameras, nor do I need extremely long flying times. I looked at DJI's products and decided on the Spark Fly More Combo. The Spark exudes quality, from the drone to the controller, to the batteries and chargers, it is solidly made. I have flown the Spark in 20mph winds with zero difficulty and I can manually land it exactly where I want to every single time. I have tried the RTH feature multiple times and it works flawlessly. The video and camera quality is much better than I expected and I am very happy with it. The precision flying characteristics of the Spark inspire tremendous confidence. I have never felt like I was going to crash it or have it get out of control. I have successfully used the Spark with a Samsung J3 Galaxy 2017 phone and the DJI GO 4 app but I vastly prefer using an IPAD Mini 4. I do not use an OTG connection. I have used the Gesture mode and it worked but I find it boring. I have not tried the Follow mode yet. The Sport mode is FUN but you need a lot of room due to the high speed. I have no regrets about buying the Spark other than I wish I had gone straight to it and skipped some of the lesser quality drones.

After going back and forth over whether or not to get a drone for over a year, I finally pulled the trigger and went with the DJI Spark Fly More Combo. The Fly More combo is essential as you must have both the remote controller as well as the additional battery to fully enjoy the drone. Although the Spark can be flown with your smartphone or tablet, it is limited and I have found it extremely difficult to do so. The remote control makes piloting much easier, increasing the range and possible speed. Having an additional battery is important as even though it is advertised as up to 15 minutes of flight time in "perfect" conditions, I have found that about 10 minutes is a normal expectation in real-world conditions. I will probably pick up a third battery if I continue to use the drone regularly. The image quality for video and stills is great. While the video is limited to 1080p, it still looks great. I've produced some amazing panoramic videos from high altitudes. While this is marketed as more of a "beginner" drone, it still has a bit of a learning curve. This is not some drone from the toy store, this is a serious piece of equipment. I strongly suggest sticking close to the ground, outside in a safe spot, with the prop guards attached when you start learning to fly. I'm not going to lie, I had to replace a prop already after I accidentally flew too close to a brick wall in my second ever flight. Learn from my mistake, put the included prop guards on when you are starting out. Before buying the Spark I labored over the choice between it and the Mavic Air (or even a refurb Mavic Pro). In the end I went with the Spark because the price difference didn't make sense for planned usage. If was going to use the drone regularly (at least every week), or was big into producing content for YouTube or Instagram (I'm not), I probably would have went with the Mavic Air. Since I really only want the drone for fly fun, and occasionally some video while traveling, the Spark fit my needs perfectly at a lower price point. One word of advice before buying any drone, check the flying restrictions near your house (or planned flying spots) with an app like AirMap. If you are too close to a restricted area it will definitely make using your drone more difficult.

When it works its pretty good, but it doesn't work often. I bought this in anticipation of using it to capture some of my little sisters wedding which was outdoors. So a few days before I started to try everything out. I experienced a few glitches but overall it seemed to work. Then come wedding day and it pretty much just failed me outright. First the app would not recognize that I was connected to the wifi of the controller. I tried over and over to get it to work, restarting the controller, my phone (Google Pixel 2) and the app. Nothing worked, the app just wouldn't let me go. So I reset the wifi connections and tried connecting my phone directly to the quad. That worked, and I squeaked in 5 minutes of footage before the battery was done (wasted tons of time playing with trying to get it connected). I switched out the battery, the wifi reconnected but then the app once again failed to allow me to fly, prompting me over and over to connect to a wifi signal I was already connected to. So in the end I missed all the important parts of the wedding and this thing is going back. So despite the few pros listed below none of them mean anything if your required to use an app that is junk... Here are the pros: Fit and finish are excellent Feels like a premium product The tech it packs is quite amazing Love the small size Here are the Cons: Wifi signal is terrible, it will drop and/or get so bad the picture freezes often App randomly crashes, good thing altitude hold works because your stuck scrambling to restart the app When the app does work you are bombarded with pop up warnings constantly, very annoying You are forced to look at ads for other DJI products almost every time you launch the app Many times even though your connected to the wifi of the remote or even the quad itself, the app doesn't think you are and you cant fly Overall this was a very frustrating device, because on paper its awesome, in their marketing its awesome, in reality it feels like a beta product. I paid a premium price for this device because I didn't want to have to tinker with things to get them to work, and that just wasn't the case. The fact that its so expensive and potentially an amazing device makes even more frustrating that the core piece of the puzzle sucks so badly.

Moved my intro to the bottom so can get right into the Spark. Really impressed by this lil bird. I started out with a jjrc and that was a flop. Then I moved to the little Cheerson cx10wt. Pretty cool but needed 3 just to have any flight time. By the time I got this spark I was ready for a real bird. I found the first flight to be impressive. It was so stable in the air. I had the Spark out in +15mph winds and it just sat there locked in position. I got just the spark it self and used my iPhone6 to start. It was cool for a bit but was lacking that real wow factor after a time without the remote. I've been slowly amassing pieces and close to a sweet set up. I like going this route cause I get to set it up my self. I don't need their bag for instance. I've ordered a hard case. I got the SKYREAT 6 in 1 Rapid Battery Charger (nice fast charges). Got a battery from family for Christmas and my 3rd battery should be arriving today in fact. (Got the Spark just before the cold snap so now temp finally rising Chicagoland) I have flown it almost every day. I got it just before thanksgiving, arrived early so had time to set up practice and do a dronie for Thanksgiving photo. Everyone loved the footage. I got to test out the active track a few times before winter took over. It followed me around as rode bicycle down the street (was still using phone). There is a bit of a curve to tracking as I could tell. You have to know how to be tracked to keep the tracking going. Keeping your self fluently to its moments as to not wonder off screen and lose the track. Still very impressive. Once I got the remote it was a game changer going from 12mph to top speed showing in my app of 33mph. I thought that I would miss out on the flipping the other drones can do.The remote made this obsolete. Having more fun zipping around. To date I've sent it out 2000ft. Not even 1/3 its max distance. I had the otg cable from a tablet I had got before. Seems to make it one less step than going to settings and connecting WiFi then jump over to the app. Though I keep seeing weak video connection in the app with the cable, it has been very stable with the cable. I'm still putting together all the pieces ex. aftermarket case, backpack to keep it safe as I plan to take it on the motorcycle. I am very happy with the all the options out there. Other drones you don't get as much surrounding the product. Soon I will be able to just throw the case in the backpack and go. I went with a camera sling bag so I will be able to set up and have fast access to the spark. As I've been writing this my 3rd battery arrived. I'm currently charging it with the drone it self for the initial charge before moving to the Skyreat. Firmware has gone smoothly. I have done the first 2 batteries and spark firmware over the WiFi. Where you have to fiddle with the connection between downloading and updating. I plan to do this new battery firmware update with the otg cable to see if it fixes the back n forth with the connection loss when you do the firmware. I really love this Spark. I wanted to get the Mavic but the price just wasn't feasible at this time with all the extras would need. I can report that I have taken phone call in flight. Put them on speaker and was still flying flawlessly. Not one for Bluetooth ear pieces so not sure how that would work out. I have my Bluetooth still turned on on the iPhone6. I have not noticed any interference. I have not ran it with Bluetooth connected to anything yet. I did run into the messages about the phone cpu overload. I found that this was caused by keeping video in the editor in the app. Once I deleted the video content in the face of the editor the overload messages stopped.I also added this info to the DJI forum hopefully they will look into that. Signal strength is amazing with the remote. I could not go over my house with the phone but with the remote I am able to fly over the house, direct interference from the house and no signal loss. Wondering if could actually make laps around the house. The cold weather has kept me from flying too much. I still have brought it out and have flown it around in 0 degrees. The only problem I've found is the gimbal will not respond in the cold as everyone else says. Really wanted to do a 360 of all the snow cover yet even trying to warm the Spark up before flight the gimbal still does not respond well. I have seen that the spark can carry the weight of the LG 360 cam so will be getting one of those for next winter. I have tried to use the hand gestures. They work ok. Not sure with the cold as I've been all bundled up. I have gotten it to work yet it seems very picky. I could not get it to take a picture with the gesture. ( no gloves, still bundled up). I have used gesture to launch then connect to the Spark with the phone while in the air (have not tried with the remote yet). That works really well. Expecting hooking to the remote in the air should work well too. Over all I'm very happy with this purchase. I cannot wait for summertime when I can really get some use out of it at some of the events we produce. I would recommend getting a Spark. It has been a blast. I come from a very aerobatic aviation background. My father was headliner at Oshkosh, Sun n Fun, Chicago Air And Water show, and many others. We had Extra 300 #4.I was one of the only people to go through his whole routine without puking lol. Have so many hours never logged. We were doing what red bull does before they ever got into the game. We have moved into producing shows now and I wanted to get something more professional. This is turning out to be the perfect purchase to start with. I do a lot of 3d work and the image is perfect to place into Cinema4D R18 and Aftereffects. I also ride a lot, so I wanted something compact. This so far is measuring up well. I have already used the footage to place my 3d model airplane in our front yard. I've been working on another video placing more 3d into the footage. Its a game changer for my design. I wanted to use the cx10s to try and do this 3d work yet the footage was very lacking. Now I can get cinematic quality with the Spark. I also plan to use this with green screen so I can get many different angles without having to have a ladder for one lol. We do the pyro for WW2 reenactment hoping this will work well giving the ability to track vehicles and get a much broader view of the battlefield. Super anxious. The Spark has opened many doors a normal camera just cannot do. I will try to update more as time passes and I get to use the Spark more. I hope that this info will help. It is a really good purchase. I'm so happy that I decided to get the Spark. In the future I plan to get the way-point app and to try out the VR app with the iphone goggles I have. Just go for it.

First and foremost, since I have bought this product, the listing has changed to include an "18G" sd card, which is neither pictured, nor something I have ever seen before. It goes from 16 to 32 from what I've ever seen in my life. FISHY... Now, onto the actual product review. This little drone is an absolute joy. I have a Hubsan 501s that I purchased from Amazon as well 2 years back to learn how to fly a drone before jumping into the more expensive range. I mention this so I can make a comparison and accentuate how great the spark is. My 501s is the second I bought, because at 70ft a gust of wind blew it away and I never saw it again. No drone is 100% safe from flyaways, but this of course was a massive letdown when I contacted the company's facebook reps and got left on "read." While the 501 also uses GPS, it is nowhere near as stable as the spark's. The spark can hang where you leave it extremely well, even up to a certain point when the wind is intense. I'd almost trust it to take a picture more steadily than an actual person holding a camera; it's that solid. The bundle I bought included the spark, 2 batteries, the battery charge hub and cables which allows for 3 batteries to be charged at once, a shoulder bag, a styrofoam case for the spark, prop guards, and a set of extra props. If you buy all these things separately, you will spend way more than if you buy a fly more combo. I recommend purchasing a third battery, maybe even a fourth. I believe the drone can be operated solely with the remote, but you won't be able to see what the camera sees, of course. The expected setup for your drone is to have either a phone or a tablet hooked up to it either via wifi or an otg cable (get the cable, seriously it's about 7 bucks and makes it so much easier) but you can fly it with a phone only as well. Again, the optimal setup is controller + phone. Wifi has a more limited range so visibility of the camera on screen might get a drop much more quickly than a cable connection from the remote to the phone will. The wifi setup is a little odd, but completely useable. For me with a cable, the startup procedure goes: turn on the remote, turn on the spark, wait a few seconds, then plug the controller cable into the phone. It'll open the dji go app (required for use with a phone or controller+phone setup) and it's typically smooth sailing from there. If it doesn't immediately work, unplugging and replugging usually gets it to work. It's important to remember the conditions of operation, that is, the weather when flying your device. A cloudy day might cause interference. I personally flew my spark up on a day where fog was absolutely intense, I'm talking you can't see past 3 or 4 cars in front of you, and it got up to 100ft before the signal lost stability. At that point my heart started to race because it wasn't responding, and I thought, "there goes $500 bucks" but then suddenly the voice on the phone says, "landing" and I just watched with my jaw on the floor as the spark brought itself down. At about 20ft I was able to take control of the craft and land it manually, but it was fantastic that almost as quickly as I lost control, it sent the drone into a landing. Lesson learned, don't fly without clear skies, or mostly clear skies. Battery life depends on how hard you push the drone. I typically get from 12-15 mins from a battery. There is a sport mode on the drone which is meant more for fast flying in order to get you to the spot you want to shoot video or pictures of, not for taking pictures or videos although you can still do it in sport mode. Charging is done either with the hub or directly with a usb cable connected to the drone, but that method is much slower. SOMETHING TO REMEMBER: I forget the reason why, but these batteries need a short cooldown period before you charge them. I tried to charge immediately after use and got a red light on the hub, which is an error message. I thought it was a defect, but it is not. Give the batteries 5-10 mins to cool off then you can charge them. The camera itself is very nice in my opinion. Though it is limited to 1080p and 30fps, I'm only ever really watching the footage on a phone, so it's more than fine for me. It isn't meant for big cinematic videos, but you can still get great shots. The gimbal is only 2 axis, not 3, so that is something to keep in mind as well. This is DJI's beginner drone, and it shows, but that is in no way a negative for the spark. It lacks the camera features, the battery life, and in some people's opinion, the portability of one of its bigger siblings like the pro which can fold up. However, for the price and what you do get straight out of the box, you're way better off getting this in order to learn to fly a drone than getting one of the cheaper alternatives that you might have more difficulty controlling due to inferior GPS or quality of the build. I spent over $500 on my 2 hubsans, and after using the spark, the one I have left is permanently grounded. It feels loose and less maneuverable, and I don't see a reason to go back to it. I could have spent that money on a spark from the beginning and gotten a better experience out of it, so think carefully about choosing to go with something cheaper. The drone does include gesture controls and some preset flight modes, but I have not used these yet so I won't comment on them. I prefer to have full control of the drone and can do anything these modes can do manually, so I don't see myself using them later on either. All in all, it's a great product. There's a learning curve at the start, but there's hundreds of tutorial videos on youtube to help with that. Good luck and fly safe!