Last week, GoPro announced its long-awaited drone, the GoPro Karma. The most compelling part is that it’s a modular system that includes the drone and a 3-axis gimbal that can be detached and used as a handheld. The product itself is super polished and includes a carrying backpack (w/ a chest mount no less) for a very reasonable price. For $1099, you get the system with a GoPro HERO5, which offers top-of-class image quality – honestly, GoPro’s promo vid, entirely filmed w/ GoPros, needs to be seen in high quality (youtube-dl -f 266+140 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlDzYIIOYmM') to be believed.

Today, DJI responded with the DJI Mavic, a foldable/portable drone that is smarter (it has all the obstacle avoidance and object tracking of the Phantom 4 and more) and incredibly small (folding into probably half the volume). It also has a (super-tiny) 3-axis gimbal and a camera that looks about on par w/ the HERO5 Session. It is $999 w/o a carrying bag/backpack, and neither the camera or stabilizer are modular (it also requires your smartphone to use for navigation vs the Karma’s AIO controller). Here’s the best hands on I saw today:

I’m definitely in the market for a travel drone, and while the Mavic’s stability is perhaps a question mark (UPDATE: looks good on Casey’s video), in almost every other way, it’s an obviously a better drone than the Karma, but if you are looking for more general (ground + air) filming, to get the same setup you’ll need to either pack your phone and spend another $300 for something like the DJI Osmo Mobile or for all-weather/action use, a stabilizer and an action camera (conservatively $500 total). As a do-everying solution, the GoPro Karma is compelling, even more-so when you consider that you can upgrade the camera separately. (While the HERO5 is w/o a doubt “the best GoPro ever,” honestly I was hoping that GoPro would end up offering an Ambarella H2 option for 4Kp60 10-bit capture and >60Mbps recording. Well, there’s always next generation.)

As of right now, I’ve preordered the Mavic, as the image quality is good enough, I don’t much care about the GoPro accessory or software ecosystem (both of which could be big pluses for some people), and I’m much more weight/volume than price sensitive. I sold some of the GPRO today that I bought a couple weeks ago to defray the costs (I’m actually still pretty bullish on GPRO and still long on it. Also, was pricey by the time I looked at it, but AMBA has been on a tear and maybe be the real winner from the drone wars.)

I’d like to start doing some more video in general, but I’m currently a bit undecided on the right mix of cameras. A m43 upgrade is almost certainly in the cards (the new Olympus EM1mk2 will do Cinema 4K 237Mbps recording w/ IBIS as well as a monstrous 15fps mechanical shutter for stills. The GH5 will do UHD 4Kp60 422 although details are sparse since it won’t be out until mid-2017), but I’m a bit unsure on what kind of stabilized (waterproof?) camera I’d want to go with, and whether there are any worthwhile stereo-180 or mono-360 cameras coming out (I’m tracking a bunch of options, just haven’t seen anything great yet).

UPDATE: The Karma does not fare well in this comparison:

UPDATE 2: Hmm, maybe not so terrible, the Hero 5 video quality is better and you’ll be able to upgrade the camera as well…