DJI - Mavic 3T

Fly it a lot, remember the limitations of the obstacle avoidance, learn the flight characteristics, and above all, have fun.  I had the Air2S, then went to the Mavic 3 and Mavic 3E and now the Mavic 3T. Skipped the Mavic 2pro to get newer, as I use these for my small business side job. 

Fly it a lot, remember the limitations of the obstacle avoidance, learn the flight characteristics, and above all, have fun.  I had the Air2S, then went to the Mavic 3 and Mavic 3E and now the Mavic 3T. Skipped the Mavic 2pro to get newer, as I use these for my small business side job. 

I just took part in flying drones to map infrastructure and home damage in a bunch of super remote villages in South West Alaska. The whole area was smacked by the remnants of Typhoon Halong, huge storm surge up the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and 100mph winds. We were using Mavic 3T’s. Our primary job is flying on wildfires, and these are great for that mission. They worked well for this as well. I’ll say the biggest bottleneck in our workflow was sending the imagery to the cloud for processing. We’re going to be looking at how RTK might increase processing speed in the future, and possibly do it local, rather than have to upload everything. Starlink is great, but it can only do so much. Near the end of our mission we started switching over to some service, don’t have my field notes on me and I can’t remember the name, that was taking full motion video and creating orthos from video shot at a 45° angle from about 50-100’. That was only my last couple days on the incident, so I’m not sure what the actual resulting product turned out like. Anker makes some really nice 25000mah batteries. They were handing those things out like candy. I was using them to run a Starlink mini and to keep my remote and phone charged. Super handy.

I have been using my Mavic 3T / Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal for dog search and rescue and I do wish the thermal camera was a little bit better, but it does work. Though I just went down a rabbit hole and found the next models up with a \~20% price bump still have the same 0.3MP resolution so I am rethinking its probably not so bad.

Mavic 3T is great but it might get banned for political reasons in a few weeks. Another competitive thermal drone is made by Autel, also made in China and might get banned. It is fairly common to crash a drone and need repairs, these bans will effectively make repairs impossible. Every other thermal capable drone is half as good or three times as expensive and still not that good. It's a terrible time in the US to buy a good drone. I've seen folks convince themselves that they'll never crash their drone, then they step on it in the parking lot.

You will be far better equipped getting a Mavic 3 thermal and a separate handheld device. Detachable payloads sit with things like the 300/350/400 series and you're looking at about 20 grand

I have some experience with this counting flocks of geese and ducks, but I used my Matrice M30 which has a 405mm optical zoom allowing me to stay around 300 feet away where it doesn't bother the birds. Anything closer than 200 feet was too intrusive and shooting from an angle was better than directly overhead - less of a threat. It sounds like a Mavic 3T might meet your needs, but the tele camera on it is a 162mm equivalent so you'll have to be closer. It's in your price range I believe.

Mavic Air 2 / Mini 3 Pro / Mavic 3T all work. With just a few **GCPs**, you can get scaled aerial maps accurate enough for garden design reference. Alternatively, if you want **easier geo-referenced mapping without a drone**, **Aurora Navigation Astra1** [https://www.gpsworld.com/aurora-navigation-introduces-mobile-visual-rtk-system/](https://www.gpsworld.com/aurora-navigation-introduces-mobile-visual-rtk-system/) can also fit within a **\~$1500 budget**.

If you want accurate maps, you need the Mavic 3 enterprise with it's mechanical shutter. For basic mapping for fun, you can go as low as a Mini 3 pro, but the rolling shutter will reduce accuracy and resolution. I work with the Mavic 3 Enterprise with RTK at work, and does incredibly accurate and detailed maps, but really no better than my old personal Phantom 4 Pro I have at home. With RTK and GCP's you can get accuracy within a cm or two. I'm trying trying to get our non-profit to get a Matrice 350 RTK with all the goodies to increase functionality as the Mavic 3E is great for maps, but not much else.

For commercial flight there is nothing comparable to the Mavic 3 Enterprise and Matrice 4 models. Once you get up to the larger Matrices then there are a couple of options that are closer but DJI has such a head start and lead on this type of flight that it will be a while until anyone can catch up. In my experience Autel makes a good drone and system but their support can be a pain if you experience issues which is more often than DJI. Skydio is in the same boat and neither have the famed mechanical shutter. For larger commercial use cases the Freefly, WISPR and Intelligent Flight offerings are getting much closer.

I intend to keep my Mini 2(non-SE) which I've had for 3yrs now even though I now have a Mavic 3 which is superior in every way by a long shot. The reason- My niche is urban/architectural photography, both with a handheld as well as drones. With most of the ideal places to fly in the city, discretion is key. I can put the Mini in the air and land it without drawing much attention, and it's the perfect size and weight for foot travel. The 12mp camera is sufficient for urban landscapes/skylines given proper composure and editing . The only real downfall would be the lack of collision avoidance , but I dont rely on that anyway. Another reason- Online prints aside, I've printed and framed 6 aerial skyline drone shots that are currently hanging in my home office, as well as another handful I sold to my wife's company's corporate office. All happen to be from the Mini 2, so...

If finances allow, keep the Mavic 2 and shoot for a Mini 4 Pro. If you have the slightest interest in aerial photography/videography, You'll hugely regret trading the Mavic for a M2. I say this as a Mini 2/Mavic3 owner. Mini 4 Pro tech in a Mini package would be sublime. But to be fair, if you're flying just to fly a drone, sure. The price is right.