GoPro Karma defector in Southern Maryland

[DigitalJ44]

Hello everyone! It took me long enough but I have finally given up all hope of getting my Karma airborne again and have jumped on the DJI Train. I’ve just picked up a Mavic Air 2S and look for forward to learning from and participating in this forum!

 

[old man mavic]

welcome to the forum

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America DigitalJ44.

If you haven't done it yet, swing by the FAA and register.

FAADroneZone

faadronezone.faa.gov

Then take the TRUST test to have a copy with you when you fly.

FAA TRUST Online Portal for Recreational Drone Operators - Pilot Institute

Get your FAA TRUST Certificate of Completion to legally fly drones for recreational reasons in the United States.

trust.pilotinstitute.com

Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

 

[DigitalJ44]

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Hello from the Crossroads of America DigitalJ44.

If you haven't done it yet, swing by the FAA and register.

FAADroneZone

faadronezone.faa.gov

Then take the TRUST test to have a copy with you when you fly.

FAA TRUST Online Portal for Recreational Drone Operators - Pilot Institute

Get your FAA TRUST Certificate of Completion to legally fly drones for recreational reasons in the United States.

trust.pilotinstitute.com

Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

I'm already registered, tagged and have my Part 107 certification. I never flew my Karma for commercial purposes, but I'm surrounded by restricted airspace (Washington DC as a whole, Andrew's AFB, Pax River NAS) so I figured it was in my best interest.

 

[OkDrone]

Hello from Oklahoma. You will learn a lot here. Have fun and you will enjoy that 2s. Fly safe.

 

[eaglesurfing]

Welcome to the forum from south central Florida and enjoy.

 

[4006448]

Welcome from the land down under.

 

[Kendallfordguy]

Welcome from Wisconsin!

 

[Drone Master]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots! Enjoy the forum!

 

[CorralesDan]

Welcome from New Mexico. Back in the mid-70s I was a sales rep for P&G and my territory went down into Southern Maryland. Beautiful country.

 

[Laborous]

Welcome to the forum from the beautiful woods of Maine!

 

[tibadoe]

Welcome from VA.

 

[wjkrysak]

Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your participation and your view of the world.

 

[msinger]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[BSauce955]

Welcome to the forum from the dry lakeless hills of Lake City FL. An irony... I know. If lakes grew here as much as your knowledge will, Lake City would become an ocean.

Welcome again!

I am curious as to why you've given up on the GoPro Karma. Is it broken?

 

[DigitalJ44]

Welcome to the forum from the dry lakeless hills of Lake City FL. An irony... I know. If lakes grew here as much as your knowledge will, Lake City would become an ocean.

Welcome again!

I am curious as to why you've given up on the GoPro Karma. Is it broken?

About a year and some change ago, GoPro pushed a firmware update that caused the drone and remote to no longer pair, essentially grounding the drone. Being as the drone was no longer in production at that point, they have had little urgency to remedy the issue. There are talks of a class-action lawsuit, as well as some people have figured out how to hack the remote and downgrade the firmware, but I'm not sure I want to go through all of that for a product that is no longer supported.

I actually liked the Karma. I was already invested in the GoPro ecosystem, so buying a factory refurbished Karma for $399 at the time was a pretty good deal. It was modular in that the drone, gimble, and camera were all separate pieces. The gimble fit on either the drone or the 'Karma Grip' (included with the drone) which turned it into a hand-held gimble, and then you inserted the camera into the gimble. (The gimble and grip still work fine btw). The unlimited cloud storage ($5 a month) was great for accessing my videos outside of the home as well.

In terms of flying, the Karma was big, bulky, and extremely manual in terms of control. It had a follow-me feature but that was about it. No sort of collision avoidance system so it'd follow you right into a tree. It wasn't particularly fast, and the 'real-life' flight time was 17-18 minutes, and the range was only about 4000ft (1.2km), but despite all of that it felt extremely stable and produced some quality video once you got a good handle on the controls. I'm certainly going to miss it but I'm looking forward to being part of a much larger user, and knowledge base with the Mavic.