Hello to all of you drone enthusiasts and not only. It's been a while since I posted on my bog, but today I really felt to do so...What do we want from multirotors or drones? Some of us searching for thrills want speed and fly mostly smaller and more agile drones, some of us want good camera performance for our "artistic" side and therefor we need good camera outputs with 3 axis gimbals, all of us I think we want our toys to be small and portable but to stay a long time in the air alike, right?
Before going to today's subject for this post I want to let you know that I build a few multirotors myself, in various shapes and sizes...just a few examples:
- Flip Fpv pro with multiwii FC
- HJ Alien frame - think it was my first build
- 650 folding hexacopter with the "famous" back then Crius AIOP flight controller
- 650 class Tarot 650 carbon using an APM 2.8 flight controller
- 2x 250/280 "racing quadcopters" and will start building an Lumenier QAV R soon
- I also have a CX 10 and a Walkera ladybug, and not lastly...
- Dji Phantom 3 Advance
Building and programming the FC's are really a nice learning experience that will get you to a certain level of knowledge on how to debug and fly these RTF quads, unlike other guys that buy themselfes directly Phantoms and upload on different media channels how high or crazy they fly...sorry guys but this is my opinion...Now if you ask me why in the world I bought myself also a Phantom3??? The answer is very simple: IT JUST WORKS...yes, you heard me...last quads I sold were my Tarot 650 and my flip FPV PRO which both flew very well, but none of them could take pictures or record movies with one click on my Ipad, none of them could fly over 3km's like the P3A does, and none of them could stay airborne for 20 mins ( Tarot with lower kv motor and larger props could but in a much larger format)
So, today I have my P3A that I trust a lot when airborne and an Lumenier Qav R "race quad" for when I need to feel the thrill :)
Now back to the original idea...The drone industry is a new realm that has an increasing cash turnover and here DJI reigns supreme...Gopro on the other hand is of course our favourite action cam (where the budget allows it ofc) and they also rule that market...So they thought to wait and see what are the best offers in the market (drones like the P4, Yuneek, a.s.o) and speculate the weaknesses in order to release their product at the right time.
So, the Gopro Karma was announced on the 19-th of september and compared to the P4 it has foldable arms making it more portable, front mounted gimbal accomodating a gopro camera, a nice all in one remote including LCD and a nice handheld camera gimbal for the Gopro camera in the package. All this of course for an correct price including or excluding a Gopro hero 5 or Session 5.
The hype was on, all the guys that recently bought Phantoms were looking at the new Karma that came in a smaller more portable form factor, unlike the P3/P4 that has fixed arms and landing gear.
Now, to be honest, I really like my P3A and was not crying tears of despair for having it...at all...
But GOPRO's joy didnt last long...I am sure that DJI who owns this market, doesnt like any real competition and their higher management team were pushing hard the Mavic project release earlier than scheduled, just to provide Gopro "la coupe de grace"...
They did this by launching today the smallest and most portable drone in their portofolio:
DJI MAVIC. This thing is kicking the Karma in terms of size/portability, flight time, the range of 7 km's !!!!!, sensors built in, flight modes / options and ways of controlling it (via controller or only smartphone) I think it's worth mentioning the fact that Dji for the first time are offering FPV goggles, allowing to fly the Mavic as a racing quad, which could mean that DJI wants to extend their operations also into the FPV goggles, where Fatshark is the leader? We'll have to see...time will tell
What's more interesting to me is the "collateral damage" resulted from the launch of this new product that has similar or sometimes better characteristics than their hobby consumer top drone the P4.
I think they realised that it is the only way to beat the Karma and they assumed the chance of doing so. Now, same like buying a new product, it is better not to jump on the first batch but wait for the first update, but that is only if you can hold you back not to buy it.
So, what package do you Guys like the Gopro Karma or the new DJI Mavic?
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| The small and compact remote |
Please share your comments and thoughts below
Thanks
