Not a single mention of the DJI Mavic?

[Dan Brockett]

Did anyone catch the live stream of the press conference? Pretty impressive new tool for little money. Kind of makes the Go Pro Karma obsolete before it even ships.

DJI Revolutionizes Personal Flight With New Mavic Pro Drone at DV Info Net

[Jeff Anselmo]

And looks like a good price too...?

Mavic Pro | DJI Store

[Dan Brockett]

Yes, I agree. $749.00 for bare drone, $999.00 for drone with controller (can also be controlled by your smart phone only) and $1,299.00 for drone, extra batts, charger, case, etc.

DJI just basically buried the entire consumer drone business in one fell swoop, even their own Phantom line. That's why I was surprised not a single post here.

[Andrew Smith]

It's a bit hard if you didn't know about it before the event.

Andrew

[Dan Brockett]

Was just surprised, this has been a big item in all of the industry websites and e-mail lists except this one. The whole thing was very reminiscent of an Apple WWDC, DJI's website was crashing throughout the day, all of my social media feeds were abuzz about little else, people still can't order it through the DJI store because it is overloaded.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

Kind of makes the Go Pro Karma obsolete before it even ships.

Think it depends, I just have been watching Casey Neistat videos on youtube where he tested both the karma and mavic and based on the actual footage the camera's shot the gopro looked a lot more detailed, the Mavic on the other hand looks much more easier to operate and is much easier to take with you, the karma then again has the advantage of the handheld gimbal/drone combo. I think both will find their audience.

[Dan Brockett]

I've been way to into research on both drones and Erik Naso turned me on to a You Tube test video with the Mavic that make Casey and the Digital Rev guys videos look horrible.

DJI Mavic Focus **TEST** 4k - YouTube

Their videos with the Mavic are all soft and out of focus because they were given prototypes to test with no instruction manuals. If they would have had instruction manuals, they would have known that the Mavic is a consumer drone with a touch to focus setting, you have to actually set a focus point by tapping on the screen. This is a new concept to consumer drone operators because basically all of the existing drones are fixed focus.

The video Erik linked to showed that the Mavic video is actually very sharp and detailed, when it's been focused! I don't blame Casey or the Digital Rev guys for shooting mush, nobody must have told them how it works. The Mavic does have some Jello-vision, more than the P4, not sure about how much Jello the Karma has but this restored my interest in the Mavic. It's not perfect but it's a good first drone for me to get my feet wet and shoot some fun footage. Watch the clip above in 4K and you will see the images look pretty good for a consumer camera.

[Garrett Low]

I've been really looking into UAS's and the DJI looks pretty impressive. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a Phantom 4 but now I have to rethink things. I'm not generally an early adopter so I'll have to wait to see what the production models and reviews are. But it looks promising.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

Their videos with the Mavic are all soft and out of focus because they were given prototypes to test with no instruction manuals.

Kind of stupid of DJI to not mention the touch focus when they hand out these preproduction models for testing purpose, this even might hurt their pre-order sales. that sample you posted does indeed look a lot more detailed.

[Dylan Couper]

You want to bury GoPro?

Cause that's how you bury GoPro.

[Dan Brockett]

I agree, this should be a case study in marketing classes across the globe on how to "steal thunder" and bury the competition.

The only DJI glitch has been letting Casey Neistat and Digital Rev post blurry, OOF footage without DJI telling them about the focus feature. Major fail. They each get hundreds of thousands of hits so those less informed who don't keep up on social media now think the Mavic has a crappy image when arguably, according to the side by sides posted yesterday, the image is more cinematic than the P4, which looks good but comes over sharpened out of the camera while the Mavic footage can be improved even more with a little post sharpening, where needed.

[Noa Put]

Neistat posted a new video a day ago making another comparison video and he apparently still doesn't know you need to touch the screen to focus, it was still blurry as hell, dji is going to regret giving their drone to a guy with five million followers on youtube :)

[Mark OConnell]

He's gotta feel like a major idiot at this point.

[Dan Brockett]

I think most people who look to Casey for video gear recommendations are non-video savvy kids. Professionals usually have more reliable sources. Casey is entertainment, pretty good at it too, I like his videos. He is a smart guy masquerading as an ADD goofball, good act. One of the few who probably make pretty good money as Vlogger, that takes talent.

[Evan Donn]

As a drone the Mavic is clearly better, but as a complete camera system I think the Karma still has an advantage.

GoPro is a better camera in terms of detail, dynamic range, codec, resolution/frame rate/FOV options, etc. You can use it as just a camera, completely waterproof and with electronic image stabilization. You can throw it on the handheld stabilizer or mount the stabilizer on a vehicle - or you can fly it on the drone and get aerial shots. You get all this capability with a case for $200 less than the mavic + case combo.

You certainly could buy the Mavic plus a Hero 5 and a handheld stabilizer, but now you're paying over twice as much as just buying the Karma. You've also added the complexity of three different systems with separate batteries & chargers to manage so you lose some of the size advantage of the mavic. You're also going to have to work more in post to match the footage from the drone.

So to me it's not a clear cut situation. If your main focus is drone capabilities then the Mavic is obviously better, but if you're looking for a way to go anywhere and get all kinds of footage with a compact package then the Karma may be the best choice.