Is GoPro Going to Start Making Drones for Aerial Video?

According to Jack Nicas at The Wall Street Journal, the answer is yes. While no official word from GoPro has been released, Jack’s WSJ article mentions that GoPro intends to start selling their own brand of multirotor helicopters (often referred to as ‘quads’ or ‘drones’) by late 2015, with a price tag between $ 500 and $ 1000. That’s quite a range, and even at the latter end they’ll be offering a very competitive product in a growing industry.

Currently, many aerial photo and video professionals, along with enthusiasts, are using GoPro’s HERO cameras on their drones. Companies like DJI and Tarot have developed advanced 3-axis gimbals that keep the GoPro cameras steady during flight, which combined create some beautifully smooth video. You can see an example of DJI’s GoPro gimbal on a Phantom 2 in the staff supplied photo above, courtesy of Will Chambers, our Editor-in-Chief.

DJI, one of the more popular aerial video drone companies, has created their own line of quadcopters that feature their own HD video camera. While they also offer their 3-axis gimbals for GoPro models, their Phantom 2 Vision+ system uses a proprietary camera, which many say is equal to the GoPro HERO3 cameras.

We are excited to see if GoPro will go forward with this idea, as it will generate even more competition in an already growing and competitive market. As we all know, competition is alwasy good for the consumer, as it drives prices down, and technology forward.

We’ll keep you updated with any developments with this story.

Source: WSJ.com

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