Opinions all over the place! (as expected). I'm in a similar boat as you. Got a $250 Holy Stone HS100 GPS drone from my kids for Christmas. HUGE ISSUE - it took 300+ minutes to charge the battery. HS gives out free batteries for a post on Amazon - which my kids read, and decided on that one based on reviews. While the drone was fine, the charge time was the killer. I sent it back to Amazon. I then bought the Yuneec Breeze, a smaller drone - a nice size, at Walmart for $200 and batteries were $30 as I recall - so I got two extra batteries - 3 in all. The issue there, the flight time in Colorado was only 6-8 minutes (not pushing it). Too short. Returned it in 2 days. These two drones taught me 2 things, I want faster charge times (1 hour OK), and longer flight times - at least 20 minutes. This took me to the Spark - but only 15 minutes flight time max with more like 10 minutes in CO. The DJI Rep (store in CO) said I need to look at the Mavic - 27 minute flight time - cool, but $1000!! ouch. If you are not using these drones in a professional capacity, its a fair amount of money for a hobby that has limited flight areas and restrictions getting worse by the day. The other part of the equation for me, I fly RC planes and Helicopters daily (almost) and have been taking video / pictures for 20+ years. It all fits - a drone is neat. But I sit here struggling - spend $1000 on the Air fly more package, and know there is a good chance I will tire quickly of taking video of the local soccer field or the open space by my house. Do yourself a favor, get a $200 drone (the Breeze is a nice one) and you can sell it for $100 after a few months of flying it. If you are still enthused about flying, your have lost $100, and you know it's somethin you want to get deeper into. If you find you find the sport too restrictive (and look at YouTube videos on this) or there are not many places to fly near you - walk away with the $100 loss. It's a cheap lesson. For me, I fly a Trex 500 fully aerobatic helicopter and it's cool, and costs 1/2 the Air FMP - I have no issue flying a drone (based on my limited experience) yet I'm still working thru the purchase - as $1K is a lot of money to spend. I wish you good luck on your decision. TAKE YOUR TIME, no rush to get one. Think through YOUR decision.
You'll note, the AIR is more a Professional Drone - not one for most flyers - however many will scrape together the money as the marketing tells us "this is the drone to have", but I bet a $400 Spark with FMP would suite BOTH of us fine!
Took a fair amount of preparation, reading and such. But it was a great experience!
