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I waited over a year for the GoPro Karma and it's finally here!

stealle

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.... but I ordered a Mavic instead.

I first heard that DJI was going to come out with their own drone in May 2015. I wasn't in a hurry to get a drone so I've just been following drone tech since about that time. The Phantom 3 looked good, but horror stories of poor customer service kept me at bay. The Phantom 4 came and looked even better, but I still felt like the "next best thing" was just around the corner. I was sure that was going to be the GoPro drone.

The announcement came! The Karma looked good, but I was immediately unimpressed by the barely average battery life, lack of obstacle avoidance, and mediocre range. Not even a "follow me" mode! At that point, I thought I'd either continue to wait or maybe just go ahead and buy the Phantom 4. I did just learn that the Mavic was on the horizon a couple weeks before the official Karma release. So, I continued to wait. When the Mavic was announced I was immediately excited. It folds up like the Karma... only way smaller yet. Has about 35% greater battery life, obstacle avoidance, insane range, and "follow me" mode (duh, of course). And... whoa! DJI Goggles coming soon?!? It seemed just like what I had been waiting for! I felt both excited and disappointed at the same time. I was like "why didn't GoPro make the Mavic?" It really did seem like the Mavic brought all the excitement I was hoping for in the Karma. I really wanted to love the Karma. GoPro is a USA based company and I'm sure the customer support will blow away DJI, but at the end of the day I had to go with what I thought was the better product.

It seems like crickets over hear compared to all the talk about the Mavic at phantompilots.com and mavicpilots.com. Not a good sign for GoPro. I hope they don't give up! I hope they convince me to buy their drone next time.
 
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Just goes to show what a significant lead DJI has over everyone else. Yuneec is a close second. No one saw obstacle avoidance in a drone of Mavics size. However for GoPro to launch without Follow Me is a confusing omission. Since it has return to launch, I hope the firmware has the ability to add this. And soon for GoPro's sake.
 
I am in the UK and want to buy a Karma despite its limitations.

Why? Because it's the best camera, in my view, and that's what I want.

But there is no information available as to where and when it will be possible to actually buy one!

There's a deathly hush ...

GoPro could well blow this if they have no product to sell to those who are happy to commit early.
 
I am in the UK and want to buy a Karma despite its limitations.

Why? Because it's the best camera, in my view, and that's what I want.

But there is no information available as to where and when it will be possible to actually buy one!

There's a deathly hush ...

GoPro could well blow this if they have no product to sell to those who are happy to commit early.

I'm told by a distributor that the Hero5 will be available next week. No date yet for Karma.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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I'm told by a distributor that the Hero5 will be available next week. No date yet for Karma.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No real surprise there.

The competitor is taking pre-orders and some possible delivery dates are now being published. What a difference!
 
Having seen the debacle of the Solo launch (gimbal not ready to ship, glitchy software, etc), GP are probably smart not committing until they know everything is ready to go. After all, GP hired a lot of the 3DR employees, so they would have learned that lesson.
Hopefully they are squeezing in "follow me", not that I used it even once on my Solo.
I will buy a Karma because it supports taking off from a moving surface like a dock or boat. DJI products don't.
 
Having seen the debacle of the Solo launch (gimbal not ready to ship, glitchy software, etc), GP are probably smart not committing until they know everything is ready to go. After all, GP hired a lot of the 3DR employees, so they would have learned that lesson.
Hopefully they are squeezing in "follow me", not that I used it even once on my Solo.
I will buy a Karma because it supports taking off from a moving surface like a dock or boat. DJI products don't.

That is incorrect... DJI products DO take off from boats. Of the more popular drones, only the 3DR Solo had issues with that. It required a "boat mode" to do what others did.

The Karma is the perfect drone if you want to take action shots and want a drone for some shots and a gimbal handle for other shots. Even the CEO says it's not a drone, it's a photography tool. I don't feel the gimbal stabilization is going to work well the way it fits in horizontally. I think it will rely on the cameras image stabilization to help is produce steady shots. There will be a market for it but the Mavic has stolen some of it, theres no two ways about it.
 
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That is incorrect... DJI products DO take off from boats. Of the more popular drones, only the 3DR Solo had issues with that. It required a "boat mode" to do what others did.

I should have been more clear, apologies. The most important word in my statement is "support". And as far as I know, after much research, is that DJI does not support the use of their products from a moving surface. Which is to say, your warrantee is shot as soon as you have a problem, even if the drone had an error that would normally be the responsibility of DJI. I am aware that DJI products will take off from boats, I spent the summer on Georgian Bay and my friend frew his P3P from his boat quite often, and sometimes he simply couldn't get it to calibrate till he got back to solid ground. It was quite entertaining watching him spinning his Phantom around on those days.

I would appreciate any links to official DJI statements acknowledging that they "support" taking off from a moving surface and that their flight controllers are able to arm properly.

Lastly, 3DR never managed to get Boat Mode implemented for Solo, it was introduced in Arducopter 3.4 which was never ported to Solo, I believe Solo got stuck at the featureset of 3.2. I also flew my Solo from my boat many times, until I had the classic EKF compass error and flyaway recently, and now am being very careful and reading everything I can.

Thanks for your feedback!
 
Remember, if you launch from a boat, that is where it will return on a RTH, except you won't be there. What if your boat gets swamped. Or everybody on board is drunk and the remote goes overboard. RTH, oh where were we when we launched it??? Put the Phantom on shore. Get in your boat and go out into the water. Launch Phantom and make it come to you. Now you are covered for lifes uncertainties.
 
Remember, if you launch from a boat, that is where it will return on a RTH, except you won't be there. What if your boat gets swamped. Or everybody on board is drunk and the remote goes overboard. RTH, oh where were we when we launched it??? Put the Phantom on shore. Get in your boat and go out into the water. Launch Phantom and make it come to you. Now you are covered for lifes uncertainties.

Lol, all good advice. My boat is a 40' cruiser and I don't fly while not anchored. I also don't fly when drinking or partying with friends. And quite often there is no land nearby not covered in tress.

Ultimately, I use "return to me" not RTL when on the boat.
 

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