GoPro Karma

GOPRO’S PHOTOGRAPHY-FOCUSED DRONE FINALLY TAKES FLIGHT IN AUSTRALIA.

GOPRO HAS BUILT a brand out of making hard-to-capture video footage extremely easy to take, thanks to its longstanding family of action cameras. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that its Karma quadcopter is the most simple-to-fly drone we’ve ever used. Ditching the smart phone-connected app in lieu of a proprietary controller and LCD screen, the Karma takes a big step towards simplicity, cutting out the uncertainty of trying to accommodate various forms of smartphone hardware and software. There is merit in this approach, but losing the smartphone connection does mean that the Karma drone misses out on the odd advanced shooting feature like ‘Follow Me’ that you get in many of the less expensive competitors. It also adds a considerable cost to the package by not utilising the screen and processing power of the smartphones that almost every Karma customer will already have in their pocket. Still, we can’t tell you how many times we’ve spent half an hour sorting out poor phone connections or waiting for a firmware update before being able to launch some of the competition.

TEST FLIGHT

It might seem a little silly to anyone who has ever flown a drone before, but the virtual flying simulation that you can open directly on the Karma controller is an excellent way to pick up the

basics of flying before having the pressure of doing it for real. This simulation test-ground runs you through the basic takeoff, flight, camera and landing controls and then allows you to get a feel for how the drone will move in the air — at least approximately — before rocketing the expensive kit.

GoPro’s rounded rubber-coated, book-sized clamshell controller has clearly been designed from the ground up with portability in mind. The 5-inch 720p LCD touch display folds to conceal the controller’s minimal two joysticks and three face buttons while the left and right triggers protrude as little as possible, allowing it to easily fit inside a bag without snagging anything else. Other than an obvious enginestart button and a handy camera mode trigger, the controller offers a pretty standard control scheme including a power switch, auto landing toggle, camera pitch wheel, a record/pause button and camera mode tab. Having every control you need directly on the controller makes it intuitive to fly and frees up what’s on the screen — there are only six bits of information and a few menus, allowing you plenty of space to see what you need to. By default, the biggest portion of the screen is dedicated to seeing the camera’s view. But you can toggle this to a GPS-pegged ariel view if you have enough satellite signal and can download a Google map of your location from Wi-Fi. This is particularly useful when planning to use Karma’s Cable Cam (from point A to B), Dronie (a pull away), Reveal (pan to horizon while moving forward) and Orbit (circle an object).

THE FULL PACKAGE

The Karma Drone has been designed to work with the $570 Hero Black 5 and a modular $370 stabiliser that can be attached to the front of the drone or to a $150 Karma Grip Handle, that’s also included in the package. Considering this combo adds up to more than 50% of the total cost, the included peripherals actually give the drone a run for its money in terms of overall tech smarts. For professional cinematographers, these three components on their own are a worthwhile package that can produce highquality, stable footage. But when you consider that the camera and the stabiliser are integral in the drone’s configuration and that, when the two are added with the backpack mount or the handheld Grip, it allows stable cinematography in a wide array of situations and becomes an extremely clever overlap of resources.

The Karma Grip Handle almost needs a review of its own. It allows you to easily control the camera’s shooting mode, recording status, add highlight tags, check battery life and lock or stabilise the camera. The Karma also comes with a backpack that can hold the camera stable for hands free recording and keeps all these handy peripherals in one neat package. For anyone wanting to do more than just aerial cinematography, these added bonuses more than add up to the higher price point.

BIRDS EYE VIEW

When paired with the Hero Black 5, the Karma drone can capture a wide variety of shot angles and speeds. Ranging from 480p to fully fledged 30 or 24fps 4K shots, the Hero 5 is exceptionally well suited for aerial cinematography. The camera lens is at full tilt at 4K and will simply get everything in frame but if you’re willing to pare back the resolution to 1440p or 1080p, you will get five different types of views to frame the perfect shot and it’ll allow you to increase the framerate to an exceptionally quick 120fps. If we’re being honest, the footage shot at 4K gets quite a bit of barrel distortion and is significantly more jittery than its lowerresolution settings, especially when moving the camera around. There are a few conservative setting shots you could use it for, but since we wouldn’t advise using the gimbal while on 4K, it wasn’t ideal. That said, at 2.7K or 1440p with the framerate cranked up and one of the available FOV settings, the Karma delivered some of the best quality drone video we’ve seen.

TAKE FLIGHT

With a top speed of 15m/s, the Karma definitely takes the slow and steady approach. The default mode is fine for beginners, but for anyone else, even the Sports mode will prioritise steady shots over speed. This is understandable when you consider that the 1kg drone was engineered from scratch in order to fold up into a compact package and that it clearly has a cinematography bent. There are some clever flight settings that allow you to set max height and distance parameters (up to 1km) to automatically keep you away from whatever you need to. There are also useful settings to tweak the sensitivity of the camera tilt wheel and invert its control scheme, so you feel totally comfortable controlling the camera and the drone. If you want to push the shot quality to the limits, though, GoPro’s passenger app allows you to delegate the camera controls to someone else. In the heat of the moment, both the drone controls and the filming responsibilities can be a lot to manage, for professionals and hobbyists alike, so this feature is a welcome addition.

The Karma drone sits in between the entrylevel rung of personal cinematography drones and the professional $2,000-plus models that sport expensive obstacle avoidance tech. For hobbyists who know their stuff and anyone more interested in drone flying than videoing, you can find a range of competitors that will offer you similar features for considerably less. That said, Karma has all you need to shoot professional-grade footage at 1440p, and as an ultra portable kit for capturing both aerial and land based shots, nothing else compares. It’s also hands-down the most user friendly drone we’ve come across with its simulated flight training and streamlined interface.