DJI - Matrice 4 Series (4T/4E)

For fields of that size I would really look at something like an M4E if you value your time. It is expensive but ludicrously fast for this type of task.

Whether it’s worth it or not is a value proposition based on time vs. money for the operator. I’m just pointing out if time is valuable, the time savings of using a drone designed for this type of capture can be very significant. I have a similar use case with sort of informal mapping that’s not done very frequently and it’s been well worth the cost to me personally.

Given what you seem to think is cool, I'm thinking you might love the Matrice 4T 😉

I like mine as well 😁 And the P1 is such a beast of a photogrammetry camera!

Hei! I think you've been looking at the wrong case! The Matrice 4T comes in a rather compact case without wheels. The M30T (and M300/350) are much larger, and come with a charging case on top of the drone case. I have the M4E and it's brilliant, I'm sure you'd love the M4T. I had an M2EA (which is really similar to the M3T), and it wasn't nearly as nice.

Hei! I think you've been looking at the wrong case! The Matrice 4T comes in a rather compact case without wheels. The M30T (and M300/350) are much larger, and come with a charging case on top of the drone case. I have the M4E and it's brilliant, I'm sure you'd love the M4T. I had an M2EA (which is really similar to the M3T), and it wasn't nearly as nice.

I mostly fly the DJI M300, but every so often I have to take the P4RTK out, and it feels like taking the DeLorean to the stone age. The data is great, but the UI/UX is painful compared to newer stuff. I finally upgraded to the Matrice 4E, first flight layer today!

The Matrice 4T isn't usable for mapping, as the camera is crap and the geotag no well synchronized. The 4E is great, and you can do 1km² easily on 1 battery (and 35min). Still, that's not great for 60km². No drone is going to be a great option for such areas. Look at fixed wings like the Wintra or the Quantum Systems Trinity Pro.

I would really recommend spending the money on the Mavic 3E or even Matrice 4E. Ask around your department, there's a good chance that other projects could make use of it, and would split the cost. We went through this at my university a few years ago, and banned the purchase of drones outside of the DroneLab, so the DroneLab can get proper equipment that projects can rent for cheap. Having 4 Air 3S flying 4 times a year costs as much as having a M3E flying 12 times a year, and everybody gets better data.

"10x faster than quadcopters, flies at 22m/s"...so 1x faster than a Matrices 4E? Also love the whole comparison section that is just pure lies. And comparing to N-1 gen products.

All their comparisons have sources like "yeah we lied". How is the MAP61 camera much better than a DJI P1 or even the one on the M4E?

If the constraint is speed + precision, I don't think photogrammetry is the best way to go. From a distance it looks like a good idea, but don't forget that going from photogrammetry to geospatial data requires a lot of processing, which will take a long time if we're talking about a volume of 20km of road. Furthermore, no, precision is achievable with a good drone like the M3E M4E M350..., but to ensure/justify precision you'll need to set up GCP (i.e. place targets on the ground that you'll survey using GPS) before the flight. So in the end I'm not really convinced that the time saving is there. For trees, yes, it's a problem, but if the roads are of normal width, a drone flying at 10/15m to stay under the canopy will easily be able to take the full-width road. If your markets are large and mainly road-based, consider the option of vehicle-mounted lidar, or vehicle-mounted slam. You'll get speed, live point clouds and precision. But it's expensive.

Well soooo cattle or at least mine can be scary or silly stuff one moment and then the next stubborn AF! I use drones to find lost heads or round up one or two strays sometimes but moving a herd isn't going to happen anymore they have gotten used to me flying around them. But it could work for him... You might get a Matrice 4T

Holy duck, we just bought a matrice 4e and felt like we got robbed, happy in our decision now!

the Matrice 4T was my first drone. absolutely love it. I take it with me on family vacation all the time to vlog our trips! 😅

I'm a huge fan of the Matrice 30T which is incredibly advanced, packing thermal, laser rangefinder, and a great IP rating. There's also the Matrice 4T which improves upon pretty much everything on the 30T except for the fact it has no IP rating. However they recently showed off the Matrice 4T Dock version which does come with an IP Rating. There are more powerful drones out there but these are the first ones that come to mind for being commercially available and advanced. M30T: https://youtu.be/9xeOvaHo8e0 M4T: https://youtu.be/md_eMFOb-3U M4T and Dock 3: https://youtu.be/Jl5FOFm4C5Q