DJI Spark, Fly More Combo, Alpine White

It's tiny and awesome. I've only had it a few days and it's great fun. It's very easy to fly and it starts off in beginner mode to make it even easier. If you are worried about crashing, just take your hands off the controls and it stops and just hovers waiting for input. It even has sensors in it to stop you crashing into things.The build quality is very good and doesn't feel flimsy. The propellors fold over and help with storage. This is a fun drone and it's very capable of excellent video that you will be happy with.The battery life is about 15 minutes, which is actually not bad considering the size. You can turn on sports mode and it flies faster at just over 50kph and can go up to 120m. The sensors that stop you from crashing the drone work from the front and from below. However, these can only prevent that at low speeds, not a 50kph, obviously.The video quality is fantastic and although it is only 1080p, the quality is excellent. This is also thanks to the superb gimbal which keeps the camera rock steady. It's so good, that when you fly in sports mode and do a quick flare stop, the gimbal manages to keep the camera pointing at the same place. When you check your video later, you will hardly notice that an extreme stop was performed. The gimbal can only go from front facing through to ground facing. I think there is about 10 settings in-between.Also thanks to the gimbal, when you review the video later, almost every frame is a useable photo unless you are going very fast. There is a micro SD card slot, so this is handy to take out afterwards and download video.Charging the battery is done through the Spark with a common micro USB charging cable. If you get the wall charger, you can charge 3 batteries at a time.The DJI Go app can also control this, but when you use the remote controller, your phone connects by wifi to the controller, and the controller connects by wifi to the Spark. I'm using an iPhone 7 and this does cause a little latency and stutters. If you connect the phone directly to the Spark, this is not really a problem. Going to a nice wide open space also helps remove other interference, along with closing apps, putting in airplane mode (also prevents calls while in flight) and enabling just wifi. If it's still a problem for you, restarting the device before flight will help. I have the OTG cable but I find airplane mode and wifi only with the controllers is working great.I haven't really used much of the gestures yet, but I have been launching from my hand (palm) and landing on my hand 50/50. It's very "handy" when at the beach.There is a side of me that kind of wishes I bought the Mavic Pro and perhaps I will in the future. For now this is great fun and easy to store compared to a Phantom. If you have the money, perhaps you should go for the Mavic Pro to save from the feeling of should have got. If you are unsure of a bigger commitment and want a really fun and feature packed drone, then the Spark is the one.TIP: Get the Flymore bundle. I bought the flymore bundle which comes with the controller, extra battery, wall charger, shoulder bag, propellor guards and spare propellors. This bundle is worth it and the controller is pre configured to connect to the Spark when you get it. Also, the Spark batteries are not that expensive in the scheme of things. Get some spares and then your fun lasts much longer.It's a solid DJI product and if you look after it, you will be able to sell it on. You can even purchase the DJI refresh program from DJI that will replace with up to 2 Sparks in the first 12 months of ownership if you accidentally crash it, even water damage. You need to buy this addon and associate with the Spark before it is activated (first use / connection through the app). I think that is a good safety net. Thing is, the Spark must be recovered to be sent back for repair and replace.

I fly Inspires, Phantoms and recently a Mavik 2 Pro at work, but I always thought it would be nice to have my own machine. Wasn't willing to cough up a thousand dollars and up for one. "Ah, I probably wouldn't use it much anyway." Sound familiar? When I saw the spark I thought it would be worth a shot even though it probably wasn't "as good" as the big ones so I got myself one for Christmas. I am very happy I did. I am thrilled by the fact that a $450 (fly more bundle at Amazon's holiday price) had a lot of the same features as the big boys. It may not shoot in 4k or have a three axis camera gimbal or have the same flight time, but I don't need it to. I just wanted to have a drone for fun, and fun it is!!!So far, I have flown this sUAS 81,029 feet (a little over 15 miles) and have never had any issues with it, I would fly more but the temps have been arctic up here. The app did crash once on me while linked to the controller by wifi and when I restarted the app my phone would not reconnect to the controller. The spark was over a thousand feet out and while I had line of sight, that's a pretty tiny thing to be able to tell where it's facing at that kind of range. With no telemetry at all available I just pushed return to home on the controller and it came straight back and landed itself. Phew. Yesterday the temp hit 41 so I played hookie and went flying. I got in 7 flights with my 4 batteries, recharging with the 3 bay DJI charger hooked to a Bioenno BPP120 power pack. I used an OTG cable (has prevented any more disconnects between my phone and the controller) a landing pad, folding signal boosters on the controller antennas and a Nanuk 915 hard case. It was a great day to fly. Over a frozen lake, I easily flew to a horizontal distance of 6,754 feet at an altitude of 35 feet. Never had any signal breakup. A clear day over a frozen lake with perfect line of sight is certainly ideal conditions, but I do believe that the signal boosters helped. I have never gotten that far out with no signal loss without them. There is a lot of heated debate about whether or not these signal boosters work, but for $9, what do you have to lose. I think they help. By the way, if you fly in the cold like I have been doing, keep the spare batteries in your coat until you are ready to use them or better yet, I have a pair of heated Milwaukee Tools gloves. These make great Spark battery warmers.Here are my suggestions for what you should get for a complete drone package:Spark fly more combo. (Yellow of course, who could want any other color?)2 extra batteries (for a total of 4).Nanuk 915 hard case (Yellow of course, who could want any other color?)Landing pad (you can see mine in the photo, there are tons of them on the market).Camera gimbal protector (I got the FS Labs one)Landing gear (FS labs again. Haven't used them yet because I use a landing pad).Folding parabolic range extenders (I got the Amazon's Choice marked ones.)Micro USB to Lightning OTG cable. (I got one from RCstyle and like it. Some say it extends range, don't know how it could do that but it provides a rock solid connection to the controller).Micro USB to female USB so you can use an Android phone with the controller.Get the DJI refresh insurance for $60 bucks or so. They will replace up to two wrecked Sparks for a year for, I think, about $60 per occurrence. If you are new to flying or like to push your luck, you will probably need this.A couple of over the top items if you really get into it:Bioenno BPP120 power pack to recharge in the field. I've heard the Smatree one is good too, but not as versatile.A phone/tablet holder by MavMount (Mavmount 3.0) This is more pricey than most because it is extremely well made professional hardware made in the US. It's worth it!!!There you have it. I really like this little drone. It has surprising range and capabilities, is surprisingly tough and is a ton of fun. Its the toy that didn't exist when we were kids, indulge yourself now! Happy flying.