If you're a drone enthusiasts you should know there's a developing trend taking place where you're starting to witness sudden a shrinkage with drones yet still maintaining full functionality to what you have with the much bigger units. Coming to thoughts would be the DJI Mavic Pro, released late last year it's the only drone I know of that's ultra compact, small in stature, and yet does not short change in performance and powerful features found with the much bigger units.
Though you have a much smaller drone with the Mavic Pro, unfortunately its still rather pricey at $1,000. That's all about to change with DJI newest edition to their drone lineup.
With the success of Mavic Pro, DJI follows up with an even smaller drone, dubbed the Spark. Seriously, the drone is so small its literally the size of a 5-inch smartphone, and importantly price is dirt reasonable at just $499.
Question begging, with its Miniature stature design, is the Spark short changed in performance and features? The answer to that question can be found in this post. Here's a few things you need to be inform about the DJI's newest hovering gadget, the Spark.
First We Have The Features
As I stated earlier the DJI Spark though its price reasonable its certainly not lacking in features, in fact its comparative to features found on the DJI Mavic Pro in terms of limitless options. There's deep learning Gesture recognition which allows users to engage in selfie shots with a simple hand motion. The PalmControl mode controls the Spark's every movement by hand. Then there's the Tap Fly Mode, simply tap your smartphone display, using DJI's envision base technology allows the drone to fly in the direction of your tap, all this while avoiding obstacles which by the way uses Active Sensing technology.
Other interesting features are the Active Track technology, this feature literally can recognize large solid objects, shapes and sizes, then tracks them accordingly to what they are and how fast they maybe moving. This makes tracking with the Spark more simplified. Another feature of interest is the Quick Shot, this allows the users to take pro style shots, enabling you to capture video in a more cinematic content.
The Flight
The DJI Spark surprisingly have a massive fight ceiling measuring in at 13,000 feet, with a full 16 mins of flight time. With most smaller drones you usually won't get excessive flight speed, with the Spark its a bit different, drop it in Sport Mode will enhance the speed of the unit, exceeding up to 31 mph.
That Camera
The most important component on a drone is of course is the camera, most highend drones in particularly the Mavic Pro shoot video in 4K, capturing aerial footage in full detail. The Spark on the other hand does not capture video in 4K, instead its 12MP camera shoots video in 1920 x 1080p. The camera does support shallow focus and Pano modes, it also includes horizontal and vertical modes. Shallow modes for general information creates a depth of field images with 3D vision technology. On the other hand vertical modes captures three photo images vertically, then combine it into one image. You can circle your target, using Helix motion where you fly upward, and spiral around the subject you're shooting , use the Drone motion which allows users to fly backward and upward while the camera is in a locked position.
Controller
With most drones, even the minimal feature price friendly variants have a controller, the Spark does have a remote controller that have 2.4GHz transmission power.
That Gimbal
Gimbal's are important to drones because its mechanical axis allows for perfect image stabilization. Unlike the Mavic Pro which has a 3-axis mechanical mechanism, the Spark have just two. This means the camera moves in a upward/downward motion.
Then There's The Battery
Powering the DJI Spark is a 1480 mAh battery, with 11.4 volts of power, 13.05 volts of maximum charging.
Price and Release Date
The pricing of the DJI Spark drone as you well know by now is $499 since I mentioned it several times in this post, it have me and I'm sure many others pretty stoked, finally we're getting a quality in compactly small drone. The color variation for the Spark will come in 5's, Yellow, White, Red, Blue, and Green. Now usually when you have a product like the Spark being unveiled with much press coverage don't expect it to be release to market for consumer purchase any time soon, good news, you don't have to wait long to get your hands on this drone, you can put in your pre-order now. DJI will begin shipping on June 15th.