Mavic Air vs. Spark

[dwallersv]

Yeah, I did it. I posted the thread. It's a worthwhile topic, as like many of you I own both, and like some of you, I think the MA has rendered the Spark a pretty paperweight.

So, point of this thread is to assert what one thinks is better about one aircraft or the other, and discuss (argue about) it.

Let's have fun but keep it civil. I'm interested in how others think through the similarities and differences.

 

[dwallersv]

First one, and this is a biggie for me: The Gesture control (Smart Capture) works, and works rather well. Yes, it can still lose you, but the conditions are far narrower, and seem to be mostly when the bird turns into the sun. Don't do that, and it works great.

Also, better design of gesture controls. Like the palms together/apart to control distance. Video and still gestures are very reliable. Palm control much more reliable. Greater range/distance with control.

With the addition of initiating Smart Capture with a double-press of the tail-light, there's nothing in the plus column for the Spark on this one. MA wins by a parsec.

 

[Jhun80]

I had Spark for a few weeks, but sold it and got the Mavic Air. For me, Spark is more sturdier, considering you dont have to fold and unfold it. The casing is more tougher and not prone to scratches. My MA have some scuff already due to folding and unfolding the arms, the propellers were touching the case. Spark, IMO is a little more quieter and MA is a little louder. Overall the MA wins.

 

[JoostGT3]

I don't know.... every time I see the spark, I want to go out and buy one, just for the want factor.
The only reason I didn't buy it is because I don't have any real reason to buy it, and it is far too expensive to be an impulse toy buy for me.

The mavic air... it is more expensive than the spark, and less capable in flying time and range than my Mavic pro, and not as "cute" as the spark, so no want factor at all for me.

I am sitting here waiting for the Mavic Pro 2 though... if it has a better camera and the rest of the specs are equal to the mavic pro and no price increase, I will order it immediately.

 

[MavicMo]

Okay I'll bite on your troll bait...

Not only do I own both, I own other DJI drones including the Phantom 4 and Mavic Pro. Each of DJI's drones serves a slightly different purpose and hits a different price point. There isn't one of their current drones that has made another current drone "obsolete" or a "paper weight". It all depends on what one's priority is; portability? Image quality? Flight time? Price?

Even having all these drones, my Spark is still the drone I just put in my back pack just in case something interesting presents itself.

• Spark has an entry level price point. It allows more people to experience AP drones
  
• The Spark will provide more capability then most people will use
• Its overall footprint (size) with spare batteries is still smaller than the Mavic Air. Still takes up less room in my backpack.
• As minor as it is, when I'm ready to fly; nothing to unfold, no gimbal clamp to remove
• Palm landing/hand catch - Only the Spark has this dedicated feature. Sure I've seen people hand catch the Mavic Air, but it doesn't have the actual feature
• Public perception (subjective) - My personal experience as a drone pilot with hundreds of hours under my belt is that people don't view the smaller Spark as a "threat". Because of it's size they see it more as a toy
• Noise - (subjective) While the Spark is loud, there is something about the "pitch" of the Mavic Air's props that makes it seem louder. Even at the same distances I can hear the Mavic Air where I can't hear the Spark

The Mavic Air's rear sensors aren't important to me. I scout areas before I fly/film and I don't fly using the tablet, meaning I fly LOS so I can see what's behind the drone. Better image quality isn't super important to me. When it is, I'll fly my Phantom 4. The Spark provides enough quality for what I usually do, post to youtube...

IMO, its an apples to oranges comparison... They serve different purposes and different market segments...

Yeah, I did it. I posted the thread. It's a worthwhile topic, as like many of you I own both, and like some of you, I think the MA has rendered the Spark a pretty paperweight.

So, point of this thread is to assert what one thinks is better about one aircraft or the other, and discuss (argue about) it.

Let's have fun but keep it civil. I'm interested in how others think through the similarities and differences.

 

[Cliff_622]

Okay I'll bite on your troll bait...

Not only do I own both, I own other DJI drones including the Phantom 4 and Mavic Pro. Each of DJI's drones serves a slightly different purpose and hits a different price point. There isn't one of their current drones that has made another current drone "obsolete" or a "paper weight". It all depends on what one's priority is; portability? Image quality? Flight time? Price?

Even having all these drones, my Spark is still the drone I just put in my back pack just in case something interesting presents itself.

• Spark has an entry level price point. It allows more people to experience AP drones
  
• The Spark will provide more capability then most people will use
• Its overall footprint (size) with spare batteries is still smaller than the Mavic Air. Still takes up less room in my backpack.
• As minor as it is, when I'm ready to fly; nothing to unfold, no gimbal clamp to remove
• Palm landing/hand catch - Only the Spark has this dedicated feature. Sure I've seen people hand catch the Mavic Air, but it doesn't have the actual feature
• Public perception (subjective) - My personal experience as a drone pilot with hundreds of hours under my belt is that people don't view the smaller Spark as a "threat". Because of it's size they see it more as a toy
• Noise - (subjective) While the Spark is loud, there is something about the "pitch" of the Mavic Air's props that makes it seem louder. Even at the same distances I can hear the Mavic Air where I can't hear the Spark

The Mavic Air's rear sensors aren't important to me. I scout areas before I fly/film and I don't fly using the tablet, meaning I fly LOS so I can see what's behind the drone. Better image quality isn't super important to me. When it is, I'll fly my Phantom 4. The Spark provides enough quality for what I usually do, post to youtube...

IMO, its an apples to oranges comparison... They serve different purposes and different market segments...

For me, the deciision goes in this order of importance;

1.) Camera
2.) Image detail
3.) Compression quality
4.) Lens quality
5.) Overall image quality.
6.) Portability
7.) Transmission Range
8.) Flight time
9.) Sexy look
10.) Does it have internal memory in case I forget my SD card.

This is what I care most about in making my choice between the two mavic. Oh...let me add one more..."video quality"

CT ;-)

 

[Srcrain]

Okay I'll bite on your troll bait...

Not only do I own both, I own other DJI drones including the Phantom 4 and Mavic Pro. Each of DJI's drones serves a slightly different purpose and hits a different price point. There isn't one of their current drones that has made another current drone "obsolete" or a "paper weight". It all depends on what one's priority is; portability? Image quality? Flight time? Price?

Even having all these drones, my Spark is still the drone I just put in my back pack just in case something interesting presents itself.

• Spark has an entry level price point. It allows more people to experience AP drones
  
• The Spark will provide more capability then most people will use
• Its overall footprint (size) with spare batteries is still smaller than the Mavic Air. Still takes up less room in my backpack.
• As minor as it is, when I'm ready to fly; nothing to unfold, no gimbal clamp to remove
• Palm landing/hand catch - Only the Spark has this dedicated feature. Sure I've seen people hand catch the Mavic Air, but it doesn't have the actual feature
• Public perception (subjective) - My personal experience as a drone pilot with hundreds of hours under my belt is that people don't view the smaller Spark as a "threat". Because of it's size they see it more as a toy
• Noise - (subjective) While the Spark is loud, there is something about the "pitch" of the Mavic Air's props that makes it seem louder. Even at the same distances I can hear the Mavic Air where I can't hear the Spark

The Mavic Air's rear sensors aren't important to me. I scout areas before I fly/film and I don't fly using the tablet, meaning I fly LOS so I can see what's behind the drone. Better image quality isn't super important to me. When it is, I'll fly my Phantom 4. The Spark provides enough quality for what I usually do, post to youtube...

IMO, its an apples to oranges comparison... They serve different purposes and different market segments...

Completely agree with this. Very well said.

 

[OldBlueHeron]

Okay I'll bite on your troll bait...

Not only do I own both, I own other DJI drones including the Phantom 4 and Mavic Pro. Each of DJI's drones serves a slightly different purpose and hits a different price point. There isn't one of their current drones that has made another current drone "obsolete" or a "paper weight". It all depends on what one's priority is; portability? Image quality? Flight time? Price?

Even having all these drones, my Spark is still the drone I just put in my back pack just in case something interesting presents itself.

• Spark has an entry level price point. It allows more people to experience AP drones
  
• The Spark will provide more capability then most people will use
• Its overall footprint (size) with spare batteries is still smaller than the Mavic Air. Still takes up less room in my backpack.
• As minor as it is, when I'm ready to fly; nothing to unfold, no gimbal clamp to remove
• Palm landing/hand catch - Only the Spark has this dedicated feature. Sure I've seen people hand catch the Mavic Air, but it doesn't have the actual feature
• Public perception (subjective) - My personal experience as a drone pilot with hundreds of hours under my belt is that people don't view the smaller Spark as a "threat". Because of it's size they see it more as a toy
• Noise - (subjective) While the Spark is loud, there is something about the "pitch" of the Mavic Air's props that makes it seem louder. Even at the same distances I can hear the Mavic Air where I can't hear the Spark

The Mavic Air's rear sensors aren't important to me. I scout areas before I fly/film and I don't fly using the tablet, meaning I fly LOS so I can see what's behind the drone. Better image quality isn't super important to me. When it is, I'll fly my Phantom 4. The Spark provides enough quality for what I usually do, post to youtube...

IMO, its an apples to oranges comparison... They serve different purposes and different market segments...

I agree with all this as well. I own them all, and the Spark still gets a lot of air time. Initially after receiving the Air I was quite enamored with it, but the Spark is still so easy to toss around.

 

[Travisimo]

The Spark is still a great starter drone, and there have been some good discounts on it over the past few months. It can be found pretty easily at times for $400 (Best Buy right now, for example), so that's a pretty big difference compared to the Air's $800 price point. I would not hesitate to recommend the Spark to a beginning flyer or someone on a tight budget. But yeah, the Air is definitely the sweet spot for me!

 

[Splats]

I had a Spark for a month and by far the biggest issue was the 2-axis gimbal. It was so frustrating when you are watching the video feed for 10 minutes thinking you are capturing some great footage and then when you pull the 1080p off the SD card you find large chunks of it is unsuitable because of camera shake. If the Spark had a 3-axis gimbal I'd never have pulled the trigger on the MA.

That being said, now that I have the MA I've done back to back comparisons of my 1080p Spark and MA video files and the difference is very significant. Obviously, there's no shake at all in the MA footage but the quality in every other area is markedly better. I don't have 4K equipment but I did some 4K recording and popped the ungraded footage into my father-in-laws TV and nearly cried it was that good. I'd imagine a 100 mbit/s graded 4K file from the MA viewed on a decent monitor or TV would be in a different realm of quality from a Spark 1080p shot from the same scene.

I also prefer the MA form factor as it folds up to a more useful shape IMHO. The spark is still a cracking done but now that the MA is out I feel the Spark was deliberately crippled with a 2-axis gimbal to allow space for the MA to take up. It's also worth noting that I've had triple the range out the MA in a like for like test and I only turned back because of battery.

 

[JeeHaa]

Some personal notes after upgrading Spark to MA:
- Main issue for me: Wifi range + reliability was just unacceptable here in the EU (CE), *much* better with MA
- 1080p wideo was good enough for me, photos were IMO sharper than what I've seen so far from the Mavic Air (my replacement is on the way).
- Great compact size: easy to take anywhere, no folding, no protector (those super compact Aliexpress cases with room for 2 additional batteries are brilliant)
- Battery lasted long enough
- Spark is built like a little tank
- I was missing a 16:9 photo option in Spark
- Spark is way too slow in normal mode (in all directions), Sport mode is cool

 

[Drone1aerial]

I've flown a Spark, just got 5 flights on the Air... to me the Air is a no brainer. You don't have to fold it up unless you are traveling, otherwise, I'll leave it ready to fly. It's FAST!... A lot faster than I had expected.. and that's just for fun. I wasn't too concerned about video quality, they are all pretty dang good these days, and I have 2 Inspire Pros for that. This purchase for me was more for fun flying, being able to take it with me on trips (Inspire is a PITA to travel with) ,and be able to capture family pics and video on vacations. The Spark to me is a beginner drone with some decent tech, but to each his own.

 

[sebastianshaw]

Similarities - Size and Portability. Spark is smaller though. As for differences and advantages for Mavic Air - It operates on Flight Autonomy 2.0 and has APAS (Advanced Pilot Assistance System), also has 3 directional obstacle sensing and Internal Storage (8GB). Video & Photo quality is better, data collecting speed is 100Mbps comparing to Spark's 24 Mbps. DJI Mavic Air has advantages over Spark. The thing I love about Spark is the gesture controls and how you can control it via hand gestures, without smartphone. Those are the most clear and significant differences for me.

 

[OldBlueHeron]

I love my Air, but if I need to get a bird up quick, for example photographing a rainbow; the Spark wins hands down. Granted, it has many, many limitations but it’s just so quick on the draw...