First the Go Pro Karma and now the DJI Mavic

So I just read up on the DJI Mavic. It has some impressive features like follow mode and other modes that make it very attractive to the first time drone buyer. It boasts 27 minutes of flight time and 4 miles of range? WTF! It kind of stole the Karma's thunder. Once again time will tell if it actually performs as advertised. These are interesting times for the consumer drone market. I think the Karma edges out the phantom but the Mavic has some nice features that eclipse the Karma if your solely interested in aerial filming.
 


Todd Pals

Member
Yeah, the timing is definitely not an accident! DV, it would be great to see a head to head comparison between the Karma and Mavic. It's also interesting timing how 3DR basically have said they are trying to get out of the consumer market. As a home-gamer who dabbles in small commercial jobs, I personally like having a craft that the camera is integrated vs. using a GoPro or other add-in camera. It is one less battery to deal with and seems much more integrated. (P4 vs. 3DR Y6 is my experience).
 

droneadmin

Administrator
Staff member
I think DJI just stole GoPro's thunder. The Mavic appears to be far superior in many ways over the Karma.

A head to head review of the Karma vs Mavic is a great idea. Will see if we can do that once they ship. We want a production model for comparison and have one on order
 

jamesb72

Member
I am steering towards the Karma personally, its cheaper and more versatile with the handheld gimbal and Hero5 detachable/usable so you can take the backpack out for a trip and have everything to get varied shots for family videos etc, and the clamshell integrated display/controller sounds like it has the hardware for visual tracking which gopro plan to add later, and suspect would be easier to implement on known hardware. My main concern is quality of gopro support for potentially much more complex issues than they have seen before, but as DJI support is woeful its not much of a contest. Sadly in the UK it seems Gopro no longer supply independent knowledgable model shops, only the big chain stores, which is a worry.

Mavic will be perfect for travelling vloggers, but a bit expensive for racing, and the goggles seem a novelty to me as you can get a miniquad setup for less money which will be much more capable. Personally I wouldn't have enough trust in collision avoidance to rely on it so its not appealing, but I do like the visual tracking/tap to fly, which I don't have on P3p with Go App (but VS does tracking pretty well, and I need to look at Litchi properly for rail etc and tracking).

Not sure I believe the 27min flight time for Mavic (3830mah 3S??), if its more like 22mins as expected, and Gopro is a solid 20mins (4S 5100mAh ) thats close enough to a match, but range wise the Mavic is definitely stronger, am keen to see how the Karma range is, as I need a solid 500M so 1km spec should be fine if it is genuine, I'm not clear if Karma uses wifi or wifi like signal, or something more robust/resilient.
 
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Todd Pals

Member
The more I watch on the Mavic the worse I feel about buying the P4 last weekend. I wonder what Best Buy's return policy is... :(
 

radioguy

Member
I saw this happen back in 2015..I bought a P3A in December, then saw the introduction of the P4 in March (with subsequent price drops on the P3A and P3P). I can buy a P3P for what I paid for my P3A, and the P4 had its own $200.00 price drop not too long ago. Now out comes the Mavic a week after the release of the Karma!

Personally, I think that DJI is the 8000 lb gorilla, and it would be next to impossible for any new entrant to stand a chance in the consumer/prosumer market. They've been at it too long, and can match/beat anyone else's price point.

Remember 3DR? Lots of hype and they've now publicly said they're concentrating on professional use and getting out of the consumer market. I will say that the tech has exploded over the last 3 1/2 years (I saw my first Phantom 1 at a trade show during April of 2013) and DJI has been the one pushing in, IMHO. Will I buy a Mavic? I really don't know-I've got drones in my garage that I haven't flown in forever, and my P3A gets little use these days. Not that it doesn't work (it does and is a fine machine)-it's just finding the time (and places) to fly.

My two cents worth. Happy (and safe) flying to all!

Fred in OKC
 

jamesb72

Member
Picked up my Hero5 today, the linear mode I really like, FOV is slightly smaller than medium but no fisheye, also the stabilisation looks very nice, but hopefully shouldn't be needed for flying, the voice commands work really well, and there are some hidden extra commands coming in new firmware.

 

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