Liyo Kikon
I love DJI products and I’m absolutely sure that any drone fans would say the same, it’s like DJI is one company who loves to push the boundaries of what is possible in drone tech and with their latest product “Spark”, they’ve done it again.
DJI Spark is a tiny, I mean really tiny drone which can easily fit in your pocket and I mean this literally since it is almost the same size as a standard mobile phone. But don’t let its tiny frame fool you because this little guy is packed with more technology than your average car. To begin with, this drone comes with a built-in 12 Megapixels camera which is capable of capturing either photos or videos upto full HD (1920×1080) and this camera is held by a 2-Axis Gimbal whose primary function is to stabilise the camera to give you that smooth gliding motion when you’re flying it. It has a flight time of 16 minutes, which is quite a lot when you consider that the drone is smaller than a chicken zinger burger and since the battery can be easily swapped, you can easily carry a bunch of extra batteries for longer flight time. You can also charge the battery easily via micro USB. The drone can fly upto 2 Kilometre away from the user in good condition, but I doubt you’ll be flying it that far away. And with a top speed of upto 50KM/H, it can whizz away faster than you can imagine.
This drone is basically a toy and I don’t mean that in a bad way, since the controls are so darn simple that even a toddler can fly it. With a new feature which DJI calls “Quick Launch”, you can just hold the drone up and it will use its “FaceAware” technology to recognise your face and start hovering, and as you walk away, the drone will follow you automatically! Along with Quick Launch, there are several other gesture controls which you can use to control the drone without using the phone app. There is a gesture control for taking pictures and if you hold up your palm at the drone and move it, the drone will follow your palm and move accordingly. With easy to use features like Quick Launch and gesture controls, you don’t even need a phone or any controls to set the drone in motion. But obviously, for precise controls, you can also use your phone to fly the drone around and like other DJI drones such as the Mavic Pro, you can tap on a subject to let the drone follow that subject or you can simply tap anywhere to let the drone go there. Along with basic movements, there are other preset shots which the drone can take such as “Rocket”, which will make the drone go up with the camera pointing downward and “Dronie” will fly the drone backward and upward with the camera locked on your subject. “Circle” is a popular one as it makes the drone fly around the subject in circular motion, this one is great for group shots. And then there is “Helix” which will make the drone fly upwards in spiral motion and obviously have the camera fixed on your subject.
One awesome thing with new DJI drones is their intelligent FlightAutonomy system which will automatically detect obstacles all around the drone to make sure that you don’t accidentally crash it and since it has a high-precision dual-band GPS onboard, it will always know exactly where it is and with the tap of a button you can order the drone to safely return back to you. And if the battery gets too low or you lose connection while the drone is flying, it will simply return back on its own, I guess you can say that it acts like a puppy who will come back to you when it gets hungry. As I mentioned before you can control the drone with your phone but an alternative would be to use an external remote which is available with DJI to expand the range of the drone and if you’re feeling adventurous, there is also a “Sport Mode” which will give you full manual control and fly at its top speed of 50KPH, I’m wondering why they didn’t call it beast mode instead.
This little baby is every kid and gadget freak’s dream to own, sure its an expensive toy costing at $600 (~Rs.40,000) but with all the tech inside it, we can all agree that it is reasonably priced when compared to other drones. It also comes in different colours – White, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green and I suppose this is DJI’s way of stating the fact that this is a fun little toy which anyone can fly.
