I´ve been reading a lot of comments here about range-issues, missing fps, missing resolutions, missing raw-support and many more complaints.

Of course I can understand that it would be great if this small drone would have more features and I understand that many pepole want to have "everything for a low price".
But this is not working.

Why?

• Because a company relies on different products for different price-categories. If they would add everey feature to every product this would make them redundant and partitially useles.
• Its a question of sizing. You cannot add more battery or bigger lenses to small drones. Also the components would be more expensive raising the price.
  

Spark was never built to be a drone with high range and professional photo- and videoequipment. Its a small drone for making selfies, and some landscapephotos and videos.
Sure when youre good at photos and videos you can get alot more out of this small thing. But in the end its limitations are here and you have to live with them.

I think many peoople do not inform them enough about a product they want to buy and then afterwards they are disapointed. Some even then start blaming the producer for the missing features even if it was possible to get this informations before buying it. (I know there are Sparks with technical issues, as every product has items that do not work proper, but the most Sparks are reliable and working as they should)

Dones are one of the rare products where it is really useful end recommended to read the (f...) manual. Why? Because it helps you not to loose your expensive drone.

I personally like it very much as it fits my needs perfectly and I knew about the flaws of Spark in comparision of e.g. a Mavic (Pro). Still I really like it and enjoy flying around and taking pictures with it.

You cannot get a better price-performance ratio for a small drone like this at the moment.
So grab your Spark, check the weather (especially the wind!) look for a good place and have fun with it.

Cheers.

-Spark was never built to be a drone with high range and professional photo- and videoequipment.
Its a small drone for making selfies, and some landscapephotos and videos.-

But since DKI is selling it with an RC and advertised "up2 2km Range", it is, kind of, a high range drone.
Don't you think?
Flightime isn't uncommon lower, as advertised and with other products of this kind, but range and controllability indeed is, for a lot of users.
At least for lots of 'em under CE settings.

S-e-ven Posted at 2017-12-28 22:29
-Spark was never built to be a drone with high range and professional photo- and videoequipment.
Its a small drone for making selfies, and some landscapephotos and videos.-

Yes and no.

Bluetooth also has a theoretic range of 100m but in reallity this never will work. Its the same about wifi.
In theory they all could do much more, or wihtin "controlled testscenarios".
Almost every product has some features that will not "work" in real situations. Batterytime for Smartphones, Notebooks and so on as another example.

I am not by you, sorry, but you missed there some points. Sure it is no high range drohne with professional Video equipment - but his what the Spark has should working without Problems and in any market. And this is exactly my critic on that Spark Drohne:
First, Everybody ask about OTG is only about the massiv WIFI Problems - Video Lags, disconnects etc (And in Europe it is a problem with the range, as the WIFI Connection is very limited and Handys didn't have the whole 5ghz band - so RC could solve that but then you should use OTG)
Second, the Videopart - i didn't find the Information on the DJI Homepage that the Camera only Support American Standard fps ... means the Spark isn't for other Markets produced. As 29,97 fps isn't world wide standard. Could be solved by implementing (and this should be only software, no hardware problem) 25p to the Video Settings.

So i am not asking about more Features which you can't expect on such drohne - i am asking about the Features they still there, they still offered on the Product Description to be Working also in Europe. Or just write on the Page "This product isn't for the European market".

That's an difference from my point of view if you just ask for more Features or only for "just get the features included working"

Mario_b Posted at 2017-12-28 23:29
I am not by you, sorry, but you missed there some points. Sure it is no high range drohne with professional Video equipment - but his what the Spark has should working without Problems and in any market. And this is exactly my critic on that Spark Drohne:
First, Everybody ask about OTG is only about the massiv WIFI Problems - Video Lags, disconnects etc (And in Europe it is a problem with the range, as the WIFI Connection is very limited and Handys didn't have the whole 5ghz band - so RC could solve that but then you should use OTG)
Second, the Videopart - i didn't find the Information on the DJI Homepage that the Camera only Support American Standard fps ... means the Spark isn't for other Markets produced. As 29,97 fps isn't world wide standard. Could be solved by implementing (and this should be only software, no hardware problem) 25p to the Video Settings.

Getting the propper FPS for Europe should be some kind of bugfix, yes.
But many people claim for 50 or even 60fps, 4k video, raw-photos, waypoints, ect... and that is not realistic.

I fly wihtin Europe too and I have no issues regarding wifi-connection from the phone to the rc. The range fits the line of sight you have to use as the drone is so small you cant barely see it when its away more than 200meters. So youre claming for something youre not allowed to do here in Europe.

xfirf_ Posted at 2017-12-28 23:43
Getting the propper FPS for Europe should be some kind of bugfix, yes.
But many people claim for 50 or even 60fps, 4k video, raw-photos, waypoints, ect... and that is not realistic.

Some people may even have better eyes, as others.
Or:
They simple wanna fly it FPV/looking on display only and using a spotter, to watch the drone and the airspace around it.
Which is, last time I checked, in many CE areas a thing to do legally.
But is not possible with the horrible lag, interruptions of video feed, .....

xfirf_ Posted at 2017-12-28 23:43
Getting the propper FPS for Europe should be some kind of bugfix, yes.
But many people claim for 50 or even 60fps, 4k video, raw-photos, waypoints, ect... and that is not realistic.

Aside that there are areas, RC flying model airfields, p.ex. where you even can fly as high as the drone gets, as far away as long it stays in the area of that controlled airfield (club) airspace.
Even in Germany, am I right?

S-e-ven Posted at 2017-12-28 23:55
Aside that there are areas, RC flying model airfields, p.ex. where you even can fly as high as the drone gets, as far away as long it stays in the area of that controlled airfield (club) airspace.
Even in Germany, am I right?

Yes thats right.

Problem as I see it, has more to do with the not treating all the users equally based on location.
I am pretty sure Americans do not have 4x better sight than Europeans.
And as for selfie videos, these are impossible to do decently in Europe under artificial light being indoors or outdoors as there is no 25fps option and it's also said by admins/moderators here, there are no plans to introduce it. So for higher price of the equipment in Europe, users get far less functionality and flexibility.

Range might be laws caused issue but:
a) lack of 25 fps
b) inability to use 5GHz in Europe
c) higher price
are not law caused issues but pure business decisions.

So, it's not that users are comparing mavics or p4ps to sparks but spark to spark, just in different world regions.

No matter how many features that are unlocked on the spark, I don’t see it competing with the alternatives.
Shortcomings:
P-mode flying is slow.
Battery time is short.
2-axis gimbal sucks.
Range is shor†.
RC connection does not work with many android devices.

The spark works well with my iphone wifi and I don’t require 25fps. My phone can’t do 25fps either.
I don’t have a TV (50Hz) and modern LED lights don’t flicker at 50Hz. And I think the spark is way too noisy
for filming indoor.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2017-12-29 00:53
Problem as I see it, has more to do with the not treating all the users equally based on location.
I am pretty sure Americans do not have 4x better sight than Europeans.
And as for selfie videos, these are impossible to do decently in Europe under artificial light being indoors or outdoors as there is no 25fps option and it's also said by admins/moderators here, there are no plans to introduce it. So for higher price of the equipment in Europe, users get far less functionality and flexibility.

no, FCC people don't habe better eyes. Only better laws. With more own responsibility to take care of 'in LOS'.
But the CE/FCC standards are not created for LOS, they are created for not disturbing others in the frequency ranges
The max range  is even in FCC NOT BECAUSE OF RC Range.
it is a 'possible if', if meaning : you ignore the rules, you have property of the needed size, you ar flying somewhere on the ocean from a sailgyacht, whatever!
You are complaining, that your car can go 200 miles an h, but the legal limit is only 80?
But in case you go on a racetrack, and it gets you only to 150, then you are starting to complain. Or not?

And to the 25 fps: Yep, that is a shame. Almost only northern America is still on 60 Hz. So yes, the Spark is a "made for North America" drone, sold worldwide.
But it is even with artificial lights a thing to deal with; change the iso , p.ex.
so as long you are aware of it, you can deal with it.
Or get you one of the Apps, which get you some more videomodes like the mavic has it.

Which will be done by many users, if otg will not officially come back or minimum as a usable 'on your own risk' option!

heliman Posted at 2017-12-29 01:03
No matter how many features that are unlocked on the spark, I don’t see it competing with the alternatives.
Shortcomings:
P-mode flying is slow.

Three of your 5 are as advertised!

P-mode flying is slow.
Battery time is short.
2-axis gimbal sucks.

The other 2 however are challenging a lot of users

I think many peoople do not inform them enough about a product they want to buy and then afterwards they are disapointed.

I did inform myself abou DJI claims "DJI GO 4 v4.1.18. Android version 4.4.0 or later.". Hence it should work on a plain vanilla Android. But it doesn't. Is this an exaggerated expectations to request the app to work on what it is claimed to work? I don't think so.

I´ve been reading a lot of comments here about range-issues, missing fps

The need for 25fps in Europe has been explained in this forum dozen of times. If you don't want to understand a basic explanation that fps incompatible with ac frequency causes flickering, then I feel you are just trolling.

missing raw-support [...] Spark was never built to be a drone with high range and professional photo- and videoequipment.

The raw support is a bit different, here. Because DJI indeed never promised to offer it, hence the request in not caused by the lack of promised feature but on the fact that EVERY digital camera registers raw images. It is were the name `raw' comes from - it is just the raw (not processed) data from the sensor. So it just a will/marketing decision of DJI to unlock this feature or not. And many people are asking DJI to do that. Why not? It is their liberty to ask. This is a public forum, so you have the right to say that Spark is a perfect piece of engineering and other people has equal right to say that they would prefer it to be able to save raw photos.

xfirf_ Posted at 2017-12-28 23:43
Getting the propper FPS for Europe should be some kind of bugfix, yes.
But many people claim for 50 or even 60fps, 4k video, raw-photos, waypoints, ect... and that is not realistic.

No missunderstanding. 50p is far away from what the Drohne can do, as they didn't support 60P US Stanard. If you use more than one Camera in Europe you will getting in Trouble on the postproduction with that stupid not Europe fitting 29,97 FPS. If it is for the Live Stream - here we go - but on the SD Card there should be a correct PAL Version with 25 FPS everything else isn't usable here for me. Most are answering well my TV can also display 60P and so on ... sure ... that's not the point. The Point is, that you must use in Postprocessing all on the same framerate - so you can't mix Spark Videos with other Holidy Videos from ActionCAM, HandCAM and so on.

OTG is not a sense of "Range" for me - it is a sense of Delay and Stability. Wifi has a big delay and is not stable anytime.

The point is that Spark is a different category of a drone than the more expensive models. Some limitations can't be circumvented due to laws of physics (like the greater flight time, you simply can't attach a huge battery to a small drone to fly with) and people understand those limitations.

What I don't understand though are the limitations that DJI creates through software to deliberatelly "cripple" spark (don't take it the wrong way, it is an outstanding piece of hardware, but could be a lot more). DJI should be aware of the fact that the Spark is a perfect way for a lot of people to enter the world of drones. It is what I consider the cheapest drone that can be taken seriously enough not to be considered as only a toy. And I am sure that many users who will try flying with it will sooner or later consider buying even the larger models (I myself would love to get Mavic Pro Platinum or maybe Mavic 2 some day ). That is, if DJI can convince me that the problem with the newer versions of DJI GO APP is just a temporary setback they are able to solve soon (it has been over a month now since the disabled OTG and a promise to fix it ;) ).

For me the lack of 25fps was the reason to buy an Mavic.

I know Spark is not targeted as a pro drone and understand that it is limited in many ways, but the pricetag in NL is far to high to justify the purchase without being able to use the footage in my home movies.
If I want a cheap drone, there are enough options in the range of € 100 - € 200,- that are great fun to fly around.
Spark is way better, but the lack of 25fps is making it almost useless as a videocamera when I want to combine it with footage from my other camera so that makes it a rather expensive toy.

In my case I chose the Spark instead of Mavic because it is three times lighter and since I am an outdoor fan and have to carry everything on my back ... the weight matters ;). Of course, my priority is shooting panoramas (and sparks camera and panorama mode is perfect for that), not making movies. For that the Mavic is certainly better (3 axis stabilization, better flight time ...).