It’s Here! The GoPro Karma



photojunky

Member
$799 and it does not include the camera. I think for the money you are still better off with a phantom. Can't wait to see some results and hearing more about this new phone.
 

jamesb72

Member
Great to see Gopro and DJI competing, can only benefit consumers, and great that they both are producing compact/folding quadcopters so competing like for like.

From watching the Karma previews I like the 2 operator option, and price I think is competitive, will be interested in flying time/battery cost and range/link quality as lightbridge was a big USP for me with Phantom3/4, but until we see some actually in use and some genuine independent reviews against the Mavik we won't know a lot.

UPDATE: Just saw Casey video flying a Karma prototype, and am sure he said '21 minutes flight remaining' when it was 'a mile away', so that would suggest flight time similar to Phantom, and pretty decent range too - certainly better than wifi which was my fear.

Casey flight starts 8mins in, and he says 21mins left around 9m35s suggesting flight time 22+mins at least, probably more due to editing.

Also saw the Karma arms are user replaceable if damaged, which is very clever, I am guessing the ESC is built into the arm (would be sensible), so hopefully a crash would be much quicker/easier to fix than on a Phantom: (see peace of mind video 33secs in)

Also saw a sneak preview shot on facebook of the DJI Mavik remote which shows 'clearance', 'height', 'distance' displays on LCD controller, which suggests it has collision avoidance to me, so that also looks exciting!

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From watching the videos it looks like a winner. Assuming there are no buggy issues with the FC like fly aways etc I think it edges out the phantom slightly because its more portable plus you get a go pro and a gimbal that can be used separately from the drone.
 

jamesb72

Member
Spares prices are now up on gopro website. http://shop.gopro.com/EMEA/mounts-accessories/#prefn1=compatibility&prefv1=Karma

Battery is £89 so a fair bit cheaper than Phantom, however its a 4S 5100mah and only 20 mins which seems less efficient than Phantom capacity/flight time ?
Spare set of Props is £19.99 which is about double what would be reasonable ;)
New arm is £45 which if that includes ESC isn't too bad, if its motor only is steep but at least is user replacable, and should be much easier than changing a Phantom shell!
Landing gear also £45 which seems steep for two bits of plastic ?
Complete new Karma quadcopter 'core' is £350 so about same as P3 control board ;)
 

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