Let me start this post by saying I am a big fan of both companies and have no allegiance or bias towards one or the other. I also keep a keen eye on both companies and watched both keynotes for the products.

Some of the specs may not have been released at the time of this post, so please don’t give me too hard a time if the facts are not all there right away.

Both drones are aimed at beginner to intermediate drone users with a big focus on capturing video. Both are capable of shooting 4k video at 30fps and 12MP stills, be that through GoPro’s Hero4 Black, Hero5, Session5 or the fixed DJI camera.

The GoPro press event for the Karma and GoPro 5 series was good, over the top as usual, but showed some really nice tech. The Karma is GoPro’s first drone and amongst the first fold down ‘portable’ drones that offer the GoPro mount and the only one with the added bonus of being able to use the latest Hero5 and Session5 cameras. The latest hardware and software upgrades to the latest GoPro cameras obviously complement the drones ability to shoot great video.

The one feature I think that everyone felt was missing was some kind of auto follow or tracking feature. We have been teased with these features from the AirDog and Staaker drones. Its something that is super appealing, just being able to launch the drone and let it do the shooting hands free.

The trouble is that GoPro have said ’the technology for auto follow is not quite there’. Then a week later DJI quite boldly tested that exact tech in their live launch event of the Mavic, that takes some faith in the technology to do. The product and brands integrity was in that drones hands during that demonstration. Another blow to GoPro was that you could order it online that day for pre-order, as opposed to GoPros ‘register interest’ strategy.

DJI are also putting the technology out in the hands of customers at selected Apple stores for a limited time. They already parnter to sell products through the Apple stores which is a killer marketing play to get seasonal sales. Another plus for DJI is that they are also offering ‘DJI Care Refresh’, a replacement service that allows you to receive two spare parts with express delivery. This is designed to get your drone back up in the air as soon as possible after a bad days flying. This is a service that is currently not in place for GoPro but coming soon,