DJI - Phantom 4 Pro

Well you stated “entry level” so this way it keeps you budget reasonable. If you can afford a bigger budget and want to gamble that you will be flying your drone regularly in a years time then I would either wait for another couple of weeks and go for the new pro 5 with the RC2 controller or the excellent pro 4. You can use a standard controller with your phone attached for those as well, that would reduce your initial outlay and then upgrade to the RC2 controller at a later date

Fingers crossed that it will be really early September. I just sold my 4 Pro the other day for a pretty good amount on eBay (only lost about £200 on it from what I paid on jt) knowing this was rumoured very soon and was said to have a 1 inch sensor.

It has a rolling shutter too so is not great for photogrammetry. Great for photos and videos.

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.

I have. Phantom 4 Pro. Is that worth getting a new battery for and getting that bird in the air?

For mine, it meant that it started acting a little weird during a flight and then it dropped out of the sky. The connectors inside looked loose but if that caused the crash it was caused bumpy the crash I won’t know. I bought a Mini 4 Pro from Costco after that. Their were things I liked better about the P4 Pro, including the manual shutter, but the software on the M4P takes much better low light pictures and the rolling shutter issue doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. But I make maps and large pictures for fun not a business.

Get you an older model, there's no shame in that. I got me a phantom 4 pro to educate a municipality on the benefits of drones and GIS. Just make sure you do the maintenance on it and the batteries. It's more budget "friendly" than an newer drone capable of your needs. Just remember you are also going to need the software to process the imagery. Good luck on your endeavors.

P4 still good for mapping because of the mechanical shutter. I wouldn’t use it for anything other than that though.

Not true, at least with earlier Phantom series drones. I had a "fly off" while trout fishing in rural Missouri several years ago. It started to rain shortly after I lost it and I had to head out. One week later, I'm back. I use the "find my drone" option and it gives me its "last known position". I follow it for about a 1/2 mile and there she is... directly in the middle of the Niangua river under 4' of water. I don't know how it works on the Avata, but the Phantoms have "last known location", not just "current location".

Honestly the P4P was a workhorse for so long and iconic i don't know if we'll see the likes of it again. We still use one for general mapping. Nothing complex and she still flies like she used to. You do have to start moving around software restrictions and things like that and batteries are becoming increasingly rare. We'll probably fly her untill we replace it with a mini or m3e We luckily have an old school electrical engineer in our parts, one of those that could fix a matrice with a paperclip and some tape. He's done wonders in keeping the drone flying.

Of all the drones I’ve used the Phantom 4 Pro was always my favorite for this!