GoPro Drone "Karma" coming out Monday 9.19.16

[biffdotorg]

My son can fly the drone but to date hasn't shown much interest in doing so, especially over the water.

My daughter has no interest in flying it either. I think once kids get to a certain age, it's in their DNA to not get excited about anything we are excited about first. It's like once they become teenagers, they want to be contrary all the time. There are still just a few things that I and my 15 year old just get jacked over, and I 'm glad they are all motorsports. We both love to drive our boat, ride waverunners, our Wildcat and we put a ton of miles on our sleds in the winter. Thank goodness as her mom will have nothing to do with any of them.

 

[OCMD]

Uhhh, for us ignorant ones, what is a hand held gimbal and why is it so great?

 

[Ronnie]

Think of it as a vibration reduction / elimination device. Instead of holding the camera in your hand you mount it on a gimbal which is gyro assisted to keep the camera stabile. Your hand may shake but it the camera won't. Some companies like Dji, Yuncee and now gopro have dual purpose gimbals which work on quad copters and as handhelds.

Here is a link to a review of the dji version. Not the cheapest but possibly the best.

 

[BigN8]

I'm not a drone guy and don't own one........BUT, that Karma video is bad to the bone! If I were to get into the drone world this would be the setup for me. I currently have a GoPro Hero 3, so this would be an upgrade on all fronts. I really like that handheld gimble do-hicky. I see myself using that feature more than the copter.

 

[biffdotorg]

I wanted a handheld gimbal so bad, but could not justify the price. So knowing that I dropped plenty of coin on the gimbal attached to my drone, I ordered a handle for my drone. It's super silly to look at, and people wonder why I have a handle for it. But once you see the ground shots it produces, the questions are all over than "how much was the handle?"

For under $30, straight from China, my handle attaches to the drone where the props thread on. I mount my phone, so that I have a viewfinder for my GoPro and fire up the drone. Just powered on, the gimbal is giving me stabilization that cannot be reproduced by free-handing a camera. It's goofy, but I don't care. It does what I want for my "for sale" ads and the like. I look at this way, I saved $500.

 

[biffdotorg]

I hear you @biffdotorg , on all points. I don't think the lily is dead. They are based near me in sf and I get email updates every few weeks. The last one came with links to tester's videos and a delivery schedule. By Jan. 1st I should have mine which if true would only represent a delay of 6 months from the original ship target date.

So you placed a pre-order on the lilly back around May 16th, 2015. You were hoping to see announcements or release at CES, which would have been around Feb,2016. You are getting regular emails now that are telling you shipping by January, 2017. What was the original target ship date? And they have had your $568 since then? Hmm. Is that a refundable deposit?

 

[Ronnie]

I don't recall all the details but remember ordering before ces and have been getting emails from the company regularly since, they have also fielded my questions about the battery, beta testing, Etc. it was supposed to ship in May 2016, in time for summer. That didn't happen but about two weeks ago I got an email with an update, some beta tester links (they have around 200 test units out there now) and a shipping schedule reflecting shipping to start in the second half of this December. Tvm wasn't really an issue, if i left that money in the bank it would have earned less than 2 % interest. Shipping on the air dog was almost a year late I think, or maybe I preordered it sooner than i did the lily. When bad reports came out about its usability (can't take off from a moving platform like a boat) and that it would not be water resistant, I cancelled my order and got a p4 instead.

On the karma, Casey n. On YouTube was brought one by GoPro and he tested and reviewed it. I will post a link to the review tonight when I get home from work.

 

[RightStuff]

On the karma, Casey n. On YouTube was brought one by GoPro and he tested and reviewed it. I will post a link to the review tonight when I get home from work.

Funny, I watched that video yesterday... Here you go, always interesting watching his videos.

 

[biffdotorg]

Somebody said they saw the Mavic in that video. I have watched it a couple times and could not see it anywhere. It could be amongst all the gadgets in his apartment though. I did notice upon re-watch that the Phantom he knocks off his desk is an empty shell. It goes from a phantom with battery to a shell with a big hole in one end. Obviously done for effect.

This is the first of his videos I have seen. I may have to check out more.

 

[Big Shasta]

Funny, I watched that video yesterday... Here you go, always interesting watching his videos.

Great, now I HAVE to have one. I travel a lot and the case for my DJI is huge. This would be my take with me drone on trips and the DJI would be for long flights when it's easy to bring (near home, car trips)

 

[Bill D]

Yep, I want one. I'll be first in line to buy one of you alls after the "Karma 2" comes out next year.

 

[Ronnie]

I was just at an Apple Store and saw this. Not as feature packed as the dji smart phone gimbal but not nearly as pricey either. Until I saw this I didn't know gopro offered a gimbal that would work with a smart phone instead of one of their cameras.

 

[OCMD]

Typical Apple. $299. Rape the public on the price, and be held in a stranglehold by Apple's proprietary technology.

 

[Ronnie]

Uh, Apple doesn't make either of the handheld gimbals I posted about but wouldn't be surprised if the gopro gimbal could be found for less on Amazon, that's true for most things however.

 

[biffdotorg]

Typical Apple. $299. Rape the public on the price, and be held in a stranglehold by Apple's proprietary technology.

There is a little pent up aggression. That's a very typical price for a handheld gimbal if not on the low end. Feiyu Tech is one of the most popular gimbals on the market for phones, GoPro's and DSLR cameras.

 

[Ronnie]

Silly me, I thought this was a dji product since the box was in the phantom display section.

 

[biffdotorg]

You are not far off. DJI makes the Osmo Mobile for those that want a phone gimbal. It is $299 as well.

http://store.dji.com/product/osmo-mobile?gclid=COiW-ZiLss8CFQUuaQod5zcPEg

This one is Bluetooth, so you can use it with IOS or Android. Pretty cool, but spendy in my book.

 

[Yan Masse]

DJI has the Mavic, looks pretty awesome too

http://www.dji.com/mavic

 

[Big Shasta]

DJI has the Mavic, looks pretty awesome too

http://www.dji.com/mavic

Yeah it is....I'm sold on the mavic. I have a feeling it's going to be my birthday present to myself next month. Anyone wanna buy a Phantom pro 3?

 

[OCMD]

Again, any of you experts want to chime in on which one to buy? The DJI or the GoPro. I am getting one for my kid who is a video camera and editing expert and wants to get into aerial photography. She has no flying experience. I was all set on the GoPro, until the new DJI came out. Help! Cost not a factor in the decision. Thanks.