According to GoPro documentation, the Karma Grip and Karma drone are not compatible with the new budget GoPro Hero 2018, I can confirm this to be true. However, I decided to test and see what happens when you mount a Hero (2018) in the Karma Grip. After all, they also stated the GoPro microphone adapter will not work with the 2018 GoPro Hero which turned out to be false and does indeed work.

The results of my test confirmed that the new 2018 GoPro Hero will not work with the Karma Grip. The camera will power on when you press the power button on the Karma Grip, however, all you can see on the GoPro screen is a message that says “USB Connected. I am confident that this is a firmware limitation and I really hope that GoPro reverses its decision on this due to the fact that other Gimbals such as the FeiyuTech G5 is 100% compatible with the new GoPro Hero (2018). For the life of me, I can not figure out why GoPro would make its own hardware incompatible while 3rd party gimbals are compatible. I get that GoPro wants to have limitations on this budget GoPro in hopes that new customers will upgrade to a more powerful feature-rich model. This, however, is one limitation that I think will have a more negative on what they are trying to achieve. Not to mention the FeiyuTech G5 gimbal is $100 cheaper, will costumers spend money to upgrade a camera so it will be compatible with a gimbal that is $100 more than a gimbal that is already compatible and cheaper?

GoPro Hero 2018 (USA) https://amzn.to/2GUGkeq
GoPro Hero 2018 (CAN) https://amzn.to/2HepmFO

If you are looking for a gimbal that is compatible with the new GoPro Hero 2018 I would recommend the FeiyuTech G5. This is my personal favorite gimbal for using with all GoPro models.

FeiyuTech G5 Gimbal (USA) https://amzn.to/2Elxj95
FeiyuTech G5 Gimbal (CAN) https://amzn.to/2q7fbuv