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Should I buy the Karma (on sale)

Should I get the karma (on sale)

  • Yes

    Votes: 3 50.0%
  • HELL NO!

    Votes: 3 50.0%

  • Total voters
    6

NewDroneBuyer

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Hi guys, I'm a first time drone user, been looking into drones ever since the phantom 3 first came out.

I know that the karma has a lot of serious issues reported, there was the recall and they are shutting down the drone departement....my question to you karma entusiasts is that if I can get the karma + hero 6 on sale (amazon), should I go for it?

I know that DJI makes great drones, but the karma grip and having a gopro hero 6 are huge selling points for me, however at the end of the day I do want a good reliable drone that I can bring with me on vacation to get nice aerial shots.

Your experiences and input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
I feel like I have just been posting negatively here a lot lately but I just got rid of my Karma after owning it about 4 months. It was only usable for 1 of those months due to a crash and then perpetual mishandling by GoPro's support team. Feel free to peruse my profile / posts if you want more information on that.

I would not recommend buying a Karma under any circumstances. The Mavic Air's camera is almost as good and has MANY more safety features (front, back and downward sensors to avoid obstacles, more reliable GPS, and it's return to home feature makes much better decisions than GoPro's). If this is your first drone, I would also suggest buying a refurbished DJI Spark or at least the DJI Spark that comes with the controller since they can be had for less than $400. The camera is not great but it at least will get you used to flying a drone at a minimal cost.

The one feature I no longer have is the Karma Grip, which admittedly was cool. That said, the built-in stabilization of the Hero6 is actually stellar and only limits you on a few of the shooting modes. I was kind of shocked at how much I didn't use the Karma Grip while the drone was down and there are more options out there for this anyways (most of which are cheaper and offer more control of the gimbal).

That's my two cents. I still lurk on this board and I apologize if I come off as a Karma hater but I should let folks know what they're in for.
 
I feel like I have just been posting negatively here a lot lately but I just got rid of my Karma after owning it about 4 months. It was only usable for 1 of those months due to a crash and then perpetual mishandling by GoPro's support team. Feel free to peruse my profile / posts if you want more information on that.

I would not recommend buying a Karma under any circumstances. The Mavic Air's camera is almost as good and has MANY more safety features (front, back and downward sensors to avoid obstacles, more reliable GPS, and it's return to home feature makes much better decisions than GoPro's). If this is your first drone, I would also suggest buying a refurbished DJI Spark or at least the DJI Spark that comes with the controller since they can be had for less than $400. The camera is not great but it at least will get you used to flying a drone at a minimal cost.

The one feature I no longer have is the Karma Grip, which admittedly was cool. That said, the built-in stabilization of the Hero6 is actually stellar and only limits you on a few of the shooting modes. I was kind of shocked at how much I didn't use the Karma Grip while the drone was down and there are more options out there for this anyways (most of which are cheaper and offer more control of the gimbal).

That's my two cents. I still lurk on this board and I apologize if I come off as a Karma hater but I should let folks know what they're in for.


Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience with me, I definitely would consider the spark since 1080p is perfectly fine for what I'm going to use it for.
 
I'm an extremely happy Karma owner. I've had my drone for over a year now, and have flown it numerous times with no issues.

One small crash which was 100% my fault. No damage aside from a few scrapes on the body/props.

Overall, the thing is a blast to rip around, and you get awesome footage. I would highly recommend.
 
The only thing getting to me is the range, the most I can get along the coast is 400 ft before it goes into the red.

Inland I have managed twice that range but it would seem the communication between the drone and the controller could be better.

I got one for £530 without camera but extra battery is about £100.

I can't lie and having been looking at the Mavic Air and if my one has a nasty accident that will most likely be my choice as a replacement.
 
Hi guys, I'm a first time drone user, been looking into drones ever since the phantom 3 first came out.

I know that the karma has a lot of serious issues reported, there was the recall and they are shutting down the drone departement....my question to you karma entusiasts is that if I can get the karma + hero 6 on sale (amazon), should I go for it?

I know that DJI makes great drones, but the karma grip and having a gopro hero 6 are huge selling points for me, however at the end of the day I do want a good reliable drone that I can bring with me on vacation to get nice aerial shots.

Your experiences and input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
Hi
I recently bought a Karma (my 1st drone) and I already had a hero 6 and grip
Unfortunately the karma failed out of the box no flights. GoPro where very good and offered to swap it out for a “rebuilt” drone.
I took the view failure out of the box as a bad sign and getting a rebuilt product having just bought a new one and never used not a great feeling so returned it to my supplier
I replaced it with a Mavic Air which if you want portablity for travel definitely the way to go (putting all the karma tech issues a side)
I’m not karma bashing had mine flown I would have kept it and I’m still a big GoPro fan
Hope this helps
Nick
 
My karma is great. No issues with anything. It flies my GoPro and does it well. I would definitely recommend buying one on a sale.
 
I like my Karma but am beginning not to trust it and thus I now have a Mavic Air.

It actually works with my Android phone (and a lot of feedback says no good on Android).

Got the flymore pack for £830.00 Controls have to be operated a lot more gently and my first videos panning is terrible (as is gimbal operation).

First flight range 1400' versus my 400' with Karma.

Once I have uploaded my first ten minutes of video (7.5Gb) I will add a link.


I still intend to keep using Karma as well but Air is so much smaller to carry around.
 
Last edited:
I like my Karma but am beginning not to trust it and thus I now have a Mavic Air.

It actually works with my Android phone (and a lot of feedback says no good on Android).

Got the flymore pack for £830.00 Controls have to be operated a lot more gently and my first videos panning is terrible (as is gimbal operation).

First flight range 1400' versus my 400' with Karma.

Once I have uploaded my first ten minutes of video (7.5Gb) I will add a link.


I still intend to keep using Karma as well but Air is so much smaller to carry around.

I really don’t like the quality of the video from your air- sorry [emoji52]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I really don’t like the quality of the video from your air- sorry [emoji52]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Wow, that’s real nice,,,,,,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I really don’t like the quality of the video from your air- sorry
emoji52.png
the Mavic Air camera is really good and with the exception


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I would put the Mavic Air camera a step above the Hero 5 and slightly below the Hero 6. The main difference I see with the Hero 6 and the Mavic Air's camera is there's no 4K 60p mode and also the Hero 6 will record H.265, effectively doubling your detail while maintaining the same bit rate (this is only available in the 4K 60p mode and the 4:3 4K / 2.7k modes though). Though now that I no longer have a Karma, I do not miss the fisheye effect of the Hero 6. When attempting slow, vertical pans or close shots (like flying under a bridge) it was difficult to pull off without distortion.

With the right settings and filter, I think most would find them nearly indistinguishable. I've seen very impressive footage shot with both. As they say, the best camera is the one you have on you.

But... I'll take the reliability of a DJI drone over that of the Karma for a slight dip in overall picture / video quality.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi guys, I'm a first time drone user, been looking into drones ever since the phantom 3 first came out.

I know that the karma has a lot of serious issues reported, there was the recall and they are shutting down the drone departement....my question to you karma entusiasts is that if I can get the karma + hero 6 on sale (amazon), should I go for it?

I know that DJI makes great drones, but the karma grip and having a gopro hero 6 are huge selling points for me, however at the end of the day I do want a good reliable drone that I can bring with me on vacation to get nice aerial shots.

Your experiences and input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.


No!!! Don't Do it!

I’ve never been more infuriated and disappointed in a brand. Poor quality product and worst customer service team I have ever encountered!!! We purchased this drone bundle prior to our honeymoon in hopes to use it many more times as we began our family. After only having it for less than 6 months, that was cut short. We took every precaution in configuring it correctly before our last flight, got the green light to go and after only minutes of flying it, the device said it was losing wi-fi connection, which triggered its autopilot mode. During its auto-flight back to us it, it lost control and crashed into a pond below it (that it had autopiloted over). I didn't realize until after, but in reading and researching further, this is actually a common problem. Because it relies on wi-fi it's extremely unreliable and can fall from the sky or hit objects in its path during the autoflight back pretty regularly. And when it does, GoPro refuses to take any accountability so you will not get your money back, even if you have a warranty on it.

We spent hours trying to retrieve it, but could not and deemed it too dangerous to attempt again and near impossible to find any ways. We contacted customer service to see what our options were since we had a two year warranty on it and were only met with robotic responses, a refusal to take any accountability and blame towards us as their consumers, with no real reasonable logic. There was absolutely nothing we could have done differently given the resources that GoPro had provided to have avoided that outcome. When prying to ask to see the flight logs they said they were confidential and would not share them with me, yet used that as an excuse to say that they decided it was not their fault. The main thing they used to blame it on user error was by saying we didn’t properly avoid the possible “wi-fi interference objects” and then they provided a list of objectives you should avoid when flying. The ONLY applicable object in this case was water! Yes, water! So all those advertisements you see on this page and throughout their website and other marketing materials with water on it, turns out you can’t actually do what they are falsely advertising and we should have known that as consumers!!!! For goodness sake, their main video has a man literally launch the karma drone off of his kayak in the middle of the ocean!!! But I should have known to not fly nearby a cranberry bog reservoir!? After months of arguing and being pushed from one terrible customer service representative to another, they offered to replace the least expensive parts, still requiring us to invest $700 for those parts to even work, and spend more money with a brand we no longer could trust. After even more arguing they offered a jokeable 20% discount. And finally, I spoke with an extremely rude and condescending customer service “supervisor”, who by no means should be in this business, that basically sternly told me to give up, take the discount and that they wouldn’t do anything else even if we found it. For a brand that thrives off of human experiences and leverages happy life milestones, they certainly ruined our honeymoon (all our footage was lost) and our babymoon, which we had hoped to use this on as well and were still arguing with them about, and did not deliver the least bit enjoyable customer service experience. I would NOT RECOMMEND buying products from this company unless you are okay wasting your money when they prematurely break and do not anticipate any understanding from the manufacturer. I hope this saves someone months of frustration in dealing with this company and some money.
 

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