DJI's $999 Mavic Pro seemed as close as the company would get to the category, with its compact folding design and intelligent subject tracking that let you capture selfies with a hand gesture. But then the Spark arrived in May and pretty much made everyone forget about all the selfie drones that came before it. It offers many of the Mavic's same features in a body that's roughly the size of a soda can.
The bundle is a good value and worth getting if you think you might want to do more than quick flights for selfies. Then again, the Mavic Pro is pretty close in price and can be flown farther, faster and for longer, it has a better camera and stabilization and folds up to a very travel-friendly size as well. Basically, if you're really interested in learning to fly a drone immediately for capturing spectacular photos and video, save up for the Mavic. The Spark is a great choice if your main goal is to get cool dronies, without limiting your opportunities to do more down the road.
Fire up the quad, hold it out in front of you facing the camera and double-tap the power button. The camera gives a quick scan, locks onto your face and spins up its propellers (watch your fingers). Let go and the drone just hovers in front of you.
To move the drone around, you hold up your palm to the camera and wait for the drone's front lights to turn green. Then you can move your hand up and down to raise and lower it and move your hand left or right to move it side to side. Give your hand a wave and the Spark will fly backwards away from you and then start tracking your movements. Make a frame shape with your thumbs and forefingers and it will snap a photo (sadly, there's no video options in Gesture Mode). Put your hands in the air in a Y shape and it will return to you. Put your hand underneath it and it will land in your palm (again, watch your fingers).