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DJI Just Released Their Cheapest Camera Drone Yet --- The Spark

Gungho Cowboy

I have been in the market for a proper camera drone. I got a cheap nano drone at home which was a pain to fly as the controls were just bad and I often just crash it. I got that nano drone to do some basics in drone flying, and now I ready for a bigger and most importantly, an affordable camera drone.

I almost bought the DJI Mavic Pro, which was flying lot hotcakes off the shelves of hobby shops, literally. I thought it was the best and most affordable camera drone. But the price is still too much for the occasional drone flyer. I intend to use it for airsoft games and or if is allowed in the destination, for travel. But it won’t be something I intend to use everyday, and a £1,000 camera drone is an expensive proposition.

It looks like DJI has been listening to folks like me and decided to come out with a new camera drone that is affordable and easier to handle for noobs like me. The DJI Spark, to be honest is still over the £500 mark but it is packed with features that will probably make it worth the purchase. For those looking for a 4K drone, they better look somewhere else, or look at the Mavic Pro, as the Spark captures video at 1080p at 30 frames per second. But if you intend to upload the videos to social media sites, then 1080p is good enough.

Controlling the DJI Spark does not necessarily require you to use a mobile phone or a remote control unit. Using hand gestures, you can take selfies shots with and with FaceAware, it takes off from your hand when it recognizes your face. With a smartphone, it can be controlled up to 109 yards away and with Tapfly, you can set how the Spark will take the footage, especially when your creative juices start flowing. When recording, it has a 2-axis gimbal for stabilization and with the QuickShot feature, it can take a 1-minute footage and edit to a 10-second video that you can immediately share.

The DJI Spark has one of the features that I want in a drone, obstacle avoidance and thus I can avoid crashing the drone into something. It can fly for a maximum of 16 minutes and a top speed of 31 miles per hour. Also another favourite feature of mine is the ActiveTrack which can track people or objects according to their speed and makes focusing on the easier.

Whilst there are still cheaper drones that are of the same size such as the DJI Spark, it still brings more to the table than these drones especially the features that I have been looking for in a cheaper, easy to fly and compact package.

The DJI Spark is available now though they only allow two units per customer given the demand and limited availability in the initial release. We might see more of the DJI Spark at airsoft events once it gets into the hands of airsoft players who have wanting to lay their hands on a camera drone to record them in action. Below is an in-depth review by We Talk UAV:

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