MAVIC vs GOPRO KARMA - One of them is the worst drone ever.

[4wd]

Yes. No piloting skills what so ever.

Don't agree, she has plenty of earlier videos flying competently and does nice edits.
Not a sensible place to fly a relatively larger drone more or less first flight though!
She seems to have expected the Karma to stabilise similar to P3 or P4 but it's more like P1 and P2 - relying only on GPS no additional Glonass it was very easy to not see enough satellites in a narrow space like that.
With inadequate GPS lock it will wander or even go into full ATTI mode.

Karma drone looks like a big clumsy and crude heap of junk though.
The only saving grace is the useful separate gimbal thing which is very useful for making handheld gopro footage usable.
But there are various other gimbals available for them at modest cost.
I thought the most shocking thing was how the full system weighs in similar to P4 with 2 o r 3 spare batteries.
Basically they are 3 or 4 generations behind and it shows.

 

[4wd]

To be 100% fair, there are quite a few Karma videos out there that don't show crashes or significant problems. That said, though, the video quality does not look to be on par with the Mavic's, but all the videos posted so far are with GoPro 4s instead of 5s.
.

The quality from Hero4 is at least as good as P4 or Mavic - except the fish eye is pretty horrid and very intrusive when you tilt the gimbal up and down.
Keep the horizon fairly central and it's less of a problem.
You can also select a medium field of view which greatly reduces the effect, or remove it in post though losing some cropped areas round the edge.
Hero 5 has some plus points but video is hardly any different.

GoPros are action cameras not at their best recording expansive scenes.
A few years back they became quite popular for aerial videos purely because they are light and small - there are far better solutions now.
In fact compared to phantom cameras let alone Mavic, a gopro now seems a very heavy thing to have to get airborne.
It simply isn't particularly suitable for the task so building a drone around it is kind of goofy.

 

[sirnikolas]

Best reviewer ever! I love the way he does his vids. They're EPIC!

Poor Justine...

 

[schpenxel]

I wonder how much did thay lost on developing the Karma and how that will affect their profits for this year.

Don't worry about profits, they've been losing money for the last year, their stock has dropped like a rock. Their revenue has had a huge drop

Personally I think they're either going to have to downsize in a major way or they won't make it long term.

 

[camfirstflyer]

Well the post was made somewhat tongue in cheek in case you misread...

However, GoPro hasn't made any money in a year (4 qtrs) and they are no longer the only game in town for action cameras. They are being crushed at the lower end by the cheap Chinese knockoffs and some of the big names from Japan have competitive products on offer. Add to that I think the Karma is going to be a huge disappointment for them which should see them lose money for another couple quarters by which time the Hero 5 will be old news and most people upgrading will have done so. Looking forward there income/expense ratio isn't looking real good.

I have a Hero 3 Black and it does a good job for what it is. The suction mount they sell sucks big time and I had my Hero 3 fly off the car three times because the mount sucks. Beyond the mount issue I have not been a fan of the supper wide angle FOV and even though you can tell it to be narrower when you do that you lose pixels.

The upside though is that the little sucker takes a beating and keeps on working. As I said it's flown off my car three times at about 50mph and landed on the paved road and still works. It's a bit banged up but it still works.


Brian

I dont think we're in disagreement. competition in the action cam arena will probably force them to lower prices for the hero5... and like dji in drones they have a lot more exp than newer companies in the action cam market, so im sure they will bounce back (also their brand loyalty is almost cult like)... as someone who uses the sony action cam line, the one thing I envy gopro for is their massive after market accessories... anyway, despite some bumps, I think they will do fine..

Just remember how long and how many screw ups Blackberry had before they finally imploded.. karma seems like gopros first major fumble, imo

 

[tchoupsley]

Don't agree, she has plenty of earlier videos flying competently and does nice edits.

I doubt she does her own edits anymore.

 

[Mahoosiv]

I'm curious about the Eastern knock off camera's. I have a Hero 3 Black and I've pondered getting a couple cheap ones for the boat (which wouldn't matter if they got killed), or to put on the dog - are the cheapo ones at Hero 3 level yet?

 

[E92Vancouver]

Don't agree, she has plenty of earlier videos flying competently and does nice edits.
Not a sensible place to fly a relatively larger drone more or less first flight though!
She seems to have expected the Karma to stabilise similar to P3 or P4 but it's more like P1 and P2 - relying only on GPS no additional Glonass it was very easy to not see enough satellites in a narrow space like that.
With inadequate GPS lock it will wander or even go into full ATTI mode.

Karma drone looks like a big clumsy and crude heap of junk though.
The only saving grace is the useful separate gimbal thing which is very useful for making handheld gopro footage usable.
But there are various other gimbals available for them at modest cost.
I thought the most shocking thing was how the full system weighs in similar to P4 with 2 o r 3 spare batteries.
Basically they are 3 or 4 generations behind and it shows.

Anyone can fly a DJI because of all the flight aids. I let newbies fly my drones all the time and not one has crashed. Not even my 8 year old niece. It is the technology that is competent. Not her. Try flying an RC helicopter with collective pitch or an RC plane. That takes competence because you are always fighting the wind and they are inherently unstable. The opposite of a drone with GPS and VPS. I bet 95% of the people on this forum could not fly a drone that has a full manual mode with no gps, no self leveling, etc.

She was use to the DJI product. That Karma is pure junk.

 

[scott rand]

I'm so glad he made this video. I for one have a grudge with gopro so I'm very happy to see their drone fail

I love their cameras though. Have a GoPro Hero 4 Silver, and I LOVE it. Great camera.

 

[scott rand]

IphoneDo was the 1st "great" video I seen showing the Mavic Pro I think that was October 10th.... And he now has the 1st great video showing the Kruma..... Man is that thing UGLY and looks to fly the same way as it looks.

I should "short" gopro stock tomorrow..... as the Kruma is going to seriously hurt GroPro

I really like that IphoneDo guy, he does a really good job doing reviews (and he's pretty freaking funny too). I thought he extremely harsh on GoPro, I'm sure people will be happy with their Karmas, BUT, he justified his harsh review with solid reasons why he was so harsh (video evidence to boot). Maybe he got a bad one ? There was evidence of wear and tear on his drone.

That being said, not even based on this review, but only a GoPro fanboy (and newbie uneducated drone enthusiast) would spend $1100 on the Karma when you can get a Mavic, P4 or Typhoon H for the same price or less.

 

[scott rand]

I'm curious about the Eastern knock off camera's. I have a Hero 3 Black and I've pondered getting a couple cheap ones for the boat (which wouldn't matter if they got killed), or to put on the dog - are the cheapo ones at Hero 3 level yet?

There are SO many GoPro knockoffs, Eken, ELEphone, Mobius, Runcam, SJcam (one of the best) Xiaomi (I hear theirs is the best) just a ton of them.

 

[kiwi flyer]

This guy was not happy with the GoPro Karma...

haha.. just about choked on my lunch when he's on that guitar! lol!

 

[Watty]

Don't agree, she has plenty of earlier videos flying competently and does nice edits.

Don't agree. She has no piloting skills whatsoever. Takes off (probably without GPS lock, but what does she care?) "I took my hands off the sticks and it kept moving." Ever hear of wind, you dumb tart?

Then she takes off again, of course with no, or at best patchy GPS reception, looks at the camera as the Karma drifts, 'I gotta be very careful,' looks at the screen and then finally at the aircraft as it smacks into her house.

The Karma certainly doesn't have the tech that DJI's last few generations have but it's still easy to control, she's just a moron, plain and simple. I wouldn't even trust her to make a sandwich without breaking something.

 

[MavicKhan]

As damaging as this very well made piece is, there's something featured in the Karma that DJI could and should easly replicate on the Mavic (...and other videography dedicated drones...).

The ability to program typical aerial shots (Reveal, Low crane, High crane, Subject-centered fly-by, etc) with multiple adjustable parameters and run them as a scripts with a 5, 10 seconds lead-in and lead-out auto recordings.

 

[MacCool]

This guy was not happy with the GoPro Karma...

 

[boldblue737]

Karma is unfortunately Phantom 2-3 level technology put into a slightly smaller (but heavier than Phantom 4!) package with a cool detachable gimbal for a GoPro camera that isn't ideal for drone footage as a camera. The Mavic is state of the art drone technology in a small size no one has ever seen before with top level performance and a camera ideally suited to filming from a drone.

 

[dam]

Anyone know why GoPro named their drone as Karma and DJI as Mavic ..

 

[Willem]

Tsk tsk that will bring u bad "karma"

not he if doesn't buy it ;-)

 

[BlueSkies]

There's going to be a lot of crashes when people don't know the bird has to be on to change settings and take off from a hay stack. About 4:19 he flies it right at himself. Wow! Read the manual.

 

[dam]

There's going to be a lot of crashes when people don't know the bird has to be on to change settings and take off from a hay stack. About 4:19 he flies it right at himself. Wow! Read the manual.

Taking off / landing on such a surface was just asking for trouble..