At least with the Spark’s current firmware, it’s simply too easily distracted either by other people or bright sunlight, or a combination of the two. Sadly, all of this all only worked for me about half of the time. You can then move it around with your palm, wave it away to take an aerial selfie from a few metres back, and ask it to take a shot by making a rectangle with your fingers (which doesn’t at all feel ridiculous). Hold the Spark in your palm and, once it’s registered your face, its props will start whirring and you can release it into the air. When it works, it does feel like you have telekinesis. The idea is to give you an easy way to take aerial stills or selfies (video isn’t possible in gesture mode yet), without having someone in the shot faffing around with a smartphone. That’s right, no controller or smartphone needed – just your arms and, well, quite a bit of patience. The Spark’s sci-fi party trick is its ‘gesture mode’, which lets you control it using hand signals. The Spark also comes with propeller guards, which even seasoned drone flyers would be wise to clip on. In two unplanned meetings with a tree, the result on both occasions was merely a broken propeller blade, which cost just £9 for a pair. Still, you’ll be able to show whoever kindly bought a Spark that it’s far from a plastic toy – this is a really well-built little thing. Suddenly, it’s very much in two or three birthday presents territory. These cost £55 each, or you can get two plus the controller with the £699 ‘Fly More’ bundle. But in practice, that battery life means you really do need a couple of spare batteries. That first limitation is perfectly fine – the Spark’s 1080p video is more than good enough for YouTube and social media. Of course, DJI hasn’t quite overcome the laws of physics – the two main drawbacks are that it can’t record 4K, and its 16-minute (maximum) battery life. And you also get GPS and Wi-Fi, for sending a livestream of its view to the iOS and Android app – or even FaceBook Live. That camera is stabilised very nicely by the two-axis gimbal. There’s a forward-facing vision system (to stop it flying into things), a downward-facing camera that helps it auto-return to the exact spot it took off from, and the main 12MP, 1080p camera. So what has DJI packed into a drone that weighs the same as our favourite compact camera? A ton of sensors, for a start. It’s really what the GoPro Karma should have been. But it easily fit into my small cycling bag, and was barely more noticeable than my water bottle. Those smaller dimensions don’t quite make it pocketable – unlike the Mavic Pro, you can’t fold down its rotors, so it’s only slightly more portable when tucked into its case. At 300g, the Spark is less than half the weight of the Mavic Pro and is 200g lighter than its closest rival, the Parrot Bebop 2.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |