After the announcement of GoPro Karma, a lot of drone pilots and hobbyists on social media were a bit disappointed with its lack of innovation. Everyone was expecting Karma to be a strong competitor for DJI. And we still see a lot of GoPro Karma vs Phantom 4 comparisons. But at best, it may become a strong competitor for the Phantom 2.
RC enthusiasts may remember a time when quadcopters didn’t come with built-in cameras. If you wanted to take pictures with a Phantom 2, you needed to strap a GoPro and gimbal to it yourself. 2 years ago, DJI announced the Phantom 3, which included a pre-attached gimbal camera, and GoPro lost its share of a huge market. Pining for some sweet, sweet drone dollars, they decided to make their own “flying camera”. Now here we are in 2016 with a drone from GoPro.
But does a company that makes action cameras know how to make a drone? How does GoPro’s attempt at market re-entry stack up to the competition? Let’s go easy on the Karma and compare it to the Phantom 2.
Portability
The Karma is a small, foldable drone. Its arms and landing gears can be folded easily and packed in a slim case. The Phantom 2 is different, because its backpack is huge and chunky. Also, there is no way to fold the P2’s arms or landing gears. GoPro certainly wins in portability.
Fight Time and Range
Gopro claims that the Karma can fly up to 20 minutes, while the Phantom 2 can fly for around 25 minutes. They share the same signal and video transmission technology and can fly up to 1000m away from RC. However, with virtually every drone on the market, you have to be in the middle of nowhere in order to reach its advertised distance. You have to be in a place with no Wi-Fi interference or any other kind of 2.4 GHz interference. According to the author’s experience, an advertised 1000m will turn out to be 500-600m in real life.
Features
“GoPro is all about simplicity! No features－no problems!”
No features were announced at the Karma’s launch event. And we could not find any on their website as well. The Phantom 2 has a few of DJI’s intelligent flight modes, like Course Lock and Home Lock. It also features manual mode for pro-level extreme flying.
Image Quality
Nothing to discuss here. You can use the GoPro Hero 4 and 5 on both drones.
Other Cool Things
The Karma’s gimbal can be dethatched from the drone and attached to a handle that comes with it, allowing you to shoot silky smooth footage even on a ground! Sounds very cool and fresh for the guys who never heard of the OSMO.
Conclusion
“Karma is better than Phantom 2!”
Even though the Karma has a shorter flight time and fewer flight control features, it wins because of its portability and detachable gimbal.
Yes, it’s 2016. And in 2016 there is a thing called the Phantom 4 out there. Let’s see GoPro Karma vs Phantom 4 comparison chart:
GoPro Karma vs Phantom 4
GoPro’s drone give the impression that it was designed a few years ago, and it doesn’t quite stack up against market trends or fancy new technologies.
That’s what Woodman calls simplicity. Or is it just an excuse?
We will know more about Karma’s performance once it’s out on October 23rd.
