Dear Nick, about those GoPro Karma 2 specifications

Gary Mortimer

Well done for trying again with Karma, I saw that you had a chat with Ben Popper from The Verge. He wrote that you said:

“Of course. The reception for Karma was very strong. It was unfortunate about the recall, but what we learned was that our existing customers and new customers are really excited about Karma’s value proposition. It means that the foundation has been laid for great things to come in the Karma line.”

Such a pity that the Karma drone fell out of the sky so easily. Next time perhaps get some out into the hands of real testers, not part of the staff that feel duty bound to report back only positive stuff.

GoPro handled the recall honourably and did a great job. Refund and a free GoPro 5 to boot. So I suspect you are right, loyal GoPro fans will stick around.

I was thinking you are are going to have to, at the minimum, match or beat these sort of specifications:

VISION SYSTEM

Vision System	Forward Vision System Backwards Vision System Downward Vision System
Velocity Range	≤31 mph (50 kph) at 6.6 ft (2 m) above ground
Altitude Range	0 – 33 ft (0 – 10 m)
Operating Range	0 – 33 ft (0 – 10 m)
Obstacle Sensory Range	2 – 98 ft (0.7 – 30 m)
FOV	60°(Horizontal), ±27°(Vertical)
Measuring Frequency	10Hz
Operating Environment	Surfaces with clear patterns and adequate lighting (> 15 lux)

CAMERA

Sensor	1’’ CMOS; Effective pixels: 20M
Lens	FOV (Field of View) 84°, 8.8 mm / 24 mm (35 mm format equivalent), f/2.8 – f/11. auto focus at 1 m – ∞

INFRARED SENSING SYSTEM

Obstacle Sensory Range	0.6 – 23 ft (0.2 – 7 m)
FOV	70° (Horizontal), ±10° (Vertical)
Measuring Frequency	10 Hz
Operating Environment	Surface with diffuse reflection material, and reflectivity > 8% (such as wall, trees, humans, etc.)

REMOTE CONTROLLER

Operating Frequency	2.400 – 2.483 GHz and 5.725 – 5.825 GHz
Max Transmission Distance	2.400 GHz – 2.483 GHz(Unobstructed, free of interference) FCC: 4.3 mi (7 km); CE: 2.2 mi (3.5 km); SRRC: 2.5 mi (4 km) 5.725 GHz – 5.825 GHz(Unobstructed, free of interference) FCC: 4.3 mi (7 km); CE: 1.2 mi (2 km); SRRC: 3.1 mi (5 km)

Oh wait, that’s a DJI Phantom 4 Pro. In six months’ time, it might look old hat and the Phantom 5 will be just around the corner. The P4P already has a better camera than the GoPro5, so some thought will have to go into that point. Must keep an eye on DJI’s cameras as their relationship with Hasselblad seems to be going from strength to strength.

Might need a brain transplant as well. Lots of smarts required avoiding things.

Maybe you should take aim at the slightly lower spec DJI Mavic. Although, Frank Wang might have been given a nudge now with your chat to roll out a better version of the Mavic. Say for Q3 of 2017. There have been issues with the Mavic, but DJI now have two months of data to start solving the issues and make the next one better.

Oh one more thing, you need to see Bachman again for further coaching in time for the relaunch. “It’s more than a drone” has been used.

Cheers,

Gary