The Best Drones for GoPro
In this section we’re looking at both my top recommended drones to use with a gopro as well as accessories that can turn normal camera drones into action cam ones.
If you’ve been searching for the best Gopro Drones you might have noticed that there aren’t really any newly released ones on the market.
In this article we’ll take a look at the best drones that are still on the market in 2021 and at the same time see why they are getting slowly removed from the market.
This drone is under $100 and although you can find this under many name brands like the Force F100, it’s the same drone. The greatest thing about this is that if you mount a newer Gopro with hyperstabilization on it, you’ll turn it into a better camera drone than anything else you could buy for the price.
You might find other outdated articles which recommend you a ton of action cam drones that are outdated or can’t even be found online anymore.
But why is that? Are GoPro drones that bad?
It all ends up being a comparison to the standard camera drones that have evolved a lot in recent years and now even surpass a big GoPro in terms of camera quality.
The idea that you might save on money by just adding your current GoPro to a drone makes sense, but you’ll find out that isn’t necessarily the case.
I also recommend you check out my article on the 4 best 360 cameras for drones, it's a great way to capture some really unique shots.
Here are the more concrete advantages and disadvantages of using either a drone with a GoPro on versus a standard camera drone.
A D V A N T A G E S
D I S A D V A N T A G E S
So as you can see, there are more disadvantages than advantages to getting a GoPro drone, it seems.
However, I do think there is an exception to the rule where it’s actually more worth it to get that drone and use it with a GoPro than buy a separate one.
In this section we’re looking at both my top recommended drones to use with a gopro as well as accessories that can turn normal camera drones into action cam ones.
No Gimbal
16 min
100m
Brushless
Again, the MJX Bugs 3 is definitely my top drone as a recommendation for people looking to use their GoPro like this. It doesn’t compete in price with any of the better camera drones like a DJI Mini 2, which for just under $500 delivers stunning footage. It can fly for a good amount of time, it’s solid and probably the only one under $100 with brushless motors, which make it powerful enough to fly a GoPro. Brushless motors are quite expensive and powerful, so it’s a real wonder they managed to make it that cheap (even on Amazon).
This quadcopter doesn't come with fancy GPS, but you can make it do flips by the press of a button and can work pretty well as a beginner GoPro drone, especially since it has multiple speed modes.
3 axis gimbal
20 min
1 km
GPS
If we ever had a chance at getting a good GoPro drone, this was it. You can still buy it second-hand in some places, but GoPro has stopped production a while back. It was a pretty good drone if you are to ask me, but because of some issues with the drone disconnecting and facing strong competition from DJI, that was releasing better and more portable drones… it simply couldn't make the cut.
However, if you can find it second-hand for a good price, it would be pretty much the most sophisticated GoPro quadcopter with a lot of flight modes, GPS, and live feed directly from the action cam itself.
The Karma came with a good GPS, a foldable design (quite portable for the time, before DJI released the Mavic series), and what’s more, a 3 axis gimbal in front., which coupled with the internal stabilization of GoPro results in some really awesome stabilized footage.
It also had a system in which you can remove this gimbal and use it as a handheld device, but with how stable nowadays drones are, it became kinda obsolete and bulky.
3 axis gimbal
18 min
3 km
GPS
o be frank, this is the ONLY GPS gopro Drone with a gimbal I could find recently. It’s still a great quadcopter that can be found on amazon or second hand with a ton of features and quite smart.
However, if you want to get the entire package with a gimbal and all it will cost you about as much as a DJI Mavic Air 2, which is a way superior drone in every way imaginable.
If you decide to buy it without a gimbal, it is indeed cheaper and more worth it.
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A few questions you might ask yourself, that people tend to ask me a lot about GoPro drones in general.
Yes, there are actually DJI Mavic Mounts for GoPro, but again, I see no reason why you would go through all that trouble and get less battery life by adding a weight on the drone.
Even so, if you want to do it, there are plenty of mounts for every mavic out there, even for the DJI Mini 2 (which is in my opinion to small to carry a gopro).
You can also find mounts for the DJI Mavic 2 which can definitely carry a gopro since it’s quite a strong quadcopter and for the DJI Mavic Air 2 as well.
These mounts require you to have a standard casing for your Gopro, but that’s great as it means that it can fit any size of action camera.
Gopros aren’t the only action cameras that can be mounted on a drone. I actually think one type of camera worth adding to a drone is a 360 one as it comes with a completely different perspective.
You can actually find a multifunctional no-slip mount for pretty much any mavic-style drone (that includes for example the Xiaomi Fimi x8. I found it on amazon and it’s called the Hooshion and if you want to mount a gopro on top and 360 action camera at the bottom, you can definitely do this with another strap accessory.
Using a GoPro or any good action camera on an FPV racing drone is the most frequently used combination of a drone and an action camera.
Since gimbals are too sensitive to crashes and sudden movements, only a sturdy camera with electornic image stabilization would do the trick.
Can I have a GoPro and my drone’s camera?
Yes, you can have a GoPro and your drones camera record at the same time by using a gopro mount on a drone like the DJI Mavic series.
This can give you a different perspective or even have some backup footage in case something goes wrong.
Recording at the same time with a 360 action camera will make for some really awesome shots that you can’t replicate with any other camera drone.
Is it safer to use other action cams as alternatives for GoPro drones?
Yes, it’s safe to use any action camera as an alternative for a gopro when using a drone, if that drone isn’t made specifically for a gopro (like the Karma is).
If it’s just a simple mount where you fit any action camera, then obviously any action cam will work.
Why aren’t there more new gopro drones on the list?
I have only picked the ones that I think can be worth buying (and that are available to buy currently). You may find a long list on other sites, but most of them are expired or the same drone but called differently.
Can GoPro drones provide a live feed?
Yes, some gopro drones can provide a live feed through the app if you connect to their wifi. However, the range will be quite short, somewhere around 50-100m. Drones like the GoPro Karma and the 3DR Solo will connect to the Gopro so the live feed range will be increased.
Although Gopro drones aren’t the best deal for when you’re looking to get a solid quadcopter or a portable one, you can find some that might fit your needs. However, besides the few cases where you might find a gopro drone with follow me, a gopro drone with gps or simply a cheap beginner one you might want to pick a standard camera drone instead.
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