After a lengthy delay, GoPro’s do-it-all Karma drone is back on sale internationally. It’ll be coming to Australia soon, too.
GoPro pulled the Karma from sale three months ago, after discovering battery issues that meant some drones were losing power completely while flying. No injuries or property damage were reported, but the company offered refunds to anyone that bought a Karma.
The issue turned out to be a faulty latch that secured the battery — in flight, the latch would fail and the battery would disconnect, causing the Karma to fall from the sky. Here’s GoPro’s statement on the issue:
“GoPro voluntarily withdrew Karma in November 2016 after a small number of cases where batteries disconnected during flight, resulting in a loss of power. GoPro identified the issue as related to the latch mechanism which secured the drone’s battery. A redesigned battery latch has been incorporated into the updated Karma drone to solve the issue.”
And now, finally, the re-engineered Karma is on sale again in the US. Expected shipping times for the $US800 drone are before the end of February, and international shipping — including Australia — is expected during the northern hemisphere spring. That’s March to May in Australia, so we’ll all be flying our foldable white camera-bots in the next couple of months.
In Australia, the new and improved and reinvigorated Karma drone will set you back $1195.95, or $1649.95 in a bundle with a Hero5 Black camera. The $199.95 Karma Case backpack, too, should be here around the same time as the drone itself.
If you don’t want to take your Hero5 to the skies, but just want its video to look smooth, there’s another solution available. The standalone Karma Grip stabiliser is already on sale — we’ll be road-testing one at the end of this month, so we’ll let you know how it performs. [GoPro]
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