GoPro Drone "Karma" coming out Monday 9.19.16

[biffdotorg]

If you already have a GoPro Hero 4 or 5 and want the handheld gimbal, the Karma is the way to go. If you have no need for a GoPro, or already have a Gimbal, then the Mavic is the way to go.

That Mavic is a better drone all the way around, but it is more money. For the dollar, Karma will get a person great shots. DJI has just been in this business longer an their products perform very well. All the review I have seen on YouTube so far of the Mavic have shown it is nearly as good as any phantom, but ultra portable.

 

[Volffas]

I REALLY like the Mavic with the follow me mode, incredible remote control distance, and small size. And you know you are getting a quality product from DJI who has been making the best drones for years.

However, I REALLY like the Karma with a GoPro 5 and a removable gimbal, and carrying case for the better price.

Personally for me, I would like to keep my Phantom 3 Pro and buy a Karma with the Hero5. Only problem with that will be trying to hide the Karma from my wife, 'cause if she sees it I'll be a dead man!

 

[Ronnie]

@OCMD , what to get really depends on what your kid wants to do with / focus on, what you already have and how much you are willing to spend.

The mavic is rated to have a camera almost as good as the dji phantom 4. I have a dji phantom 4, since the convenience of a smaller package like the mavic doesn't interest me I won't be buying a mavic. The big down side of the dji v. The go pro karma is that the dji cameras do not record any sound because they don't need to in flight where all you'd hear is the beating/more of w buzzing of the rotor blades. You could still use the copter/gimbal and camera as a hand held unit like @biffdotorg does but you would have to add sound in later during the editing process which is bound to add time to the same. The mavic without the remote is is $750, I would opt for getting the remote which is another $250 and at least one extra battery which are suppose to be a little over $100 each. So all told the cost of a mavic plus a second battery is $1,100 plus tax. One other thing to keep in mind is that the mavic is a purpose built / dedicated flying camera with a lot of advance flying features and capabilities that the karma simply doesn't have (e.g. Obstacle avoidance, altitude maintenance, redundant GPS systems, accurate object tracking, etc.).

As a far as the go pro karma system is concerned it is a very versatile. Small folding yet capable quad copter , remote and removable gimbal but the camera is sold separately if you don't already have a gopro 4 or go pro5/session 5. If you want an all around system that you can use in the air or on the ground with sound recording capability and electronic stabilization the karma seems to be the only option. Again the copter functions don't / can't compete with the mavic but if arial photography / videography is only part of what you are after the mavic isn't the best choice. Cost, $800 without the camera. Not sure what the batteries cost but they are inexpensive for the cameras so maybe they will be for the copter as well. If you buy a gp5 with the karma add $300, $200 for a session 5, $400 and $250 ish respective if you buy afterwards. I'd go with a gopro 4 silver since it has a screen on the back which would be useful for framing shots when using the hand held gimbal, it should also cost less than the gp5 as well but if it's not around $200 you may as well spring for the gp5 at the time of purchase.

FYI- After a lot of thought, I've decided not to buy either the karma or the mavic. I haven't been using my quadcopter much but have been using my gopro a lot. If anything I may pick up the go pro gimbal. By the way, I'm still selling my p3 advance but the used market Is now flooded with them as well as the standard and pro models. I've seen some p4s for sale as well but the prices for them are still up there by comparison.

 

[jpass]

Both new drones are pretty sweet, but if I were in the market for one, I'd go with the Mavic. That thing is beyond bada$$.

This guy is a drone nut, check out this video:

He also has individual vids of each drone by themselves.

Here's the Karma as the above video is labeled incorrectly:

 

[MattFX4]

Both new drones are pretty sweet, but if I were in the market for one, I'd go with the Mavic. That thing is beyond bada$$.

This guy is a drone nut, check out this video:

He also has individual vids of each drone by themselves.

Here's the Karma as the above video is labeled incorrectly:

Stumbled across this guy the other day on Youtube. Apparently he is some Youtube star. His videos are pretty cool. Some people live interesting lives!

 

[Big Shasta]

Stumbled across this guy the other day on Youtube. Apparently he is some Youtube star. His videos are pretty cool. Some people live interesting lives!

He's in the top 10 for money making vloggers. He does a great job with his vids.

 

[ToddW850]

He's in the top 10 for money making vloggers. He does a great job with his vids.

Not to sound naive, but how do you make so much money Vlogging??? I've heard YouTube will pay you money for so many views of your video, but this is something you can live off?

 

[MattFX4]

Not to sound naive, but how do you make so much money Vlogging??? I've heard YouTube will pay you money for so many views of your video, but this is something you can live off?

That's a good question. I have never even heard of the term vlogging until this week. According to Forbes there is some guy who is know as "PewDiePie" who earns $12 million a year doing this!

 

[jpass]

Not to sound naive, but how do you make so much money Vlogging??? I've heard YouTube will pay you money for so many views of your video, but this is something you can live off?

Has a lot to do with the number of views each video you post gets. As you acquire views, they add commercials which translates to money (adsense). Casey did a video a few weeks ago about a $21K airline ticket.

I believe he made roughly $127K just for that one video due to the traffic it generated (currently at 23M+ views).

 

[MattFX4]

Ok, I change my opionon of him. I thought he was cool until I just saw his "who I am voting for" video. He is on the kool aid for sure.

 

[Ronnie]

There are you tube videos about how people make money vlogging. Casey is said to make about $700k a year off of you tube. There are a few vloggers that review products like Disney products or toys that make close to $1m per year and get most of the items they review for free. Check out the background in casey's videos, when the phantom 4 came out dji sent him 5 of them at no cost to him, same with all those powered skate boards and trips to where ever all over the world. It's all about the number of views on monetized videos. Casey has so many followers/subscribers that whenever he posts a video it doesn't take more than a few days for it to be viewed over 1m times. You tube only pays a penny or less per view over a trigger amount I don't know about but in sum all those small payments can add up to a lot of money.

I've never made a penny off you tube, either my videos didn't get enough views or they are not monetizable by me. Probably the former but every time I post a video on you tube that contains third party music i get a notice that if any one gets paid for it will be the musician / recording label not me. Looks like great work if you can get it but it seems very few do, less now that you tube is being more picky about what they will pay for. For instance, if there is a lot of swearing in your video or too much sexuality, you may not get paid even if it goes viral. By the way I learned this from one of Carey's videos, where he was bitching politely about the new policies.

 

[itsdgm]

There's a convention every year for vloggers it called Vidcon. My daughters dragged me there the last two years. I had no idea until last year that these people are making serious $ from these videos. It's amazing.

 

[njmr2fan]

I waited patiently for the GoPro Karma. I'm glad I did, Im getting a Mavic Pro now.

 

[Ronnie]

Continuing to wait patiently for my lily to ship. Got this email a few days ago.

People wanting the karma or Mavic maybe in for a little wait themselves. The karma can't be ordered for another week and other than the beta testers of the Mavic nobody seems to have received them yet. Even Casey n. Of you tube wasn't able to get another one after loosing his in the waters off New York.

Last point on the Casey n. Review of the Mavic is that he did not focus the camera as is recommended by dji so there is a lot of discussion about how his results are skewed with the general consensus being that once focused properly the Mavic camera is just as good as the one on the p4.

I was in a hobby shop today and they had marked down the p3 advance they have from $1,000 to $$650, depressing since I paid over $1,200 for my system a little over a year ago and am having a hard time selling it for $450 now.

 

[Volffas]

Bad news for the Karma, ALL units are being recalled, and the owners are being issued full refunds.

From their website "GoPro is committed to providing our customers with great product experiences. To honor this commitment, we have recalled Karma until we resolve a performance issue related to a loss of power during operation. We plan to resume shipment of Karma once the issue is addressed." Here are the full details https://gopro.com/2016karmareturn

Here's a video of one losing power in flight. Scary stuff and a reason to never fly over people.