GoPro’s Karma stabilizer grip goes on sale starting today

GoPro is giving users a new way to capture footage. Starting today, the company is selling the Karma stabilizer grip — which was originally bundled with the now-recalled Karma drone — on its own for $299. The grip will be immediately compatible with the Hero 5 Black out of the box, but Hero 4 Black and Silver users will have to cough up an extra $29 for a harness that fits those cameras. Hero 5 Session users will have to wait until “Q2 2017” for a harness for that camera. 

I was initially impressed with the Karma Grip during the short amount of time I got to use it in September. It’s not quite as versatile as something like the DJI Osmo, which has a deep suite of controls and options. But it’s a powerful addition to a GoPro user’s arsenal, and a more sturdy option than some of the existing versions of the same idea.

GoPro said it would sell the Karma Grip separate from the drone when it announced everything in September, but the company never firmed up a release date until now. In the meantime, though, GoPro has taken some big hits. Production issues slowed the release of the Karma drone and the Hero 5 cameras, which affected the company’s third quarter earnings. Then GoPro had to recall every single Karma drone that had been sold because some of them were literally falling out of the sky. To top it all off, GoPro laid off 15 percent of its staff this past week, marking the second round of layoffs in 2016.

The article was published on : theverge