DJI Spark low light test.

I decided to test out the DJI Spark's camera in dim conditions while we still had the outdoor lights up. I was happily surprised how well it did, even at high ISO's! However, while the images look great, they were not easy to capture. The various collision detection and vertical positioning systems were highly unreliable in the darkness, and the drone wouldn't stay stable and still in the air. I had to keep constantly fiddling with the controls to keep it from drifting.

 

And now for some test photos, they have not been edited. 

1/30th of a second, ISO 1600

1/5th of a second, ISO 800

1 second, ISO 400

2 seconds, ISO 400

And now for some ISO detail comparisons, since the exposures aren't the same I realize this isn't a very good comparison. However, you can see an appreciable increase in noise as the ISO increases. I think that while there is a significant amount of noise at ISO 1600, I'd consider it usable in a pinch.

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

Back to the stability aspect, that seemed to improve after I moved away from the ground, and at around 50 feet it was stable enough to get a relatively shake free image with a one second long exposure. However, as you can see, there's a lot of blur at 2 seconds, though the Spark does have a "tripod mode" that might help things.

In conclusion, I found that the Spark's camera does well enough in low light, and can hold still enough in the air to take long exposures of impressive length for a flying device. I could see this being especially useful for waterfall photography (where you want to get that silky smooth water effect), which is something I'm very excited to use the spark for, since often waterfalls are often difficult to access on foot. I can't recommend flying the spark in very dark conditions, considering the malfunctions I experienced with the sensors.

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For more on the Spark, check out my previous photo galleries and videos linked below, and stay tuned for more tests, tutorials, and eventually a full review!

Flying above the clouds with the DJI Spark

DJI Spark first flight photo and video gallery