DJI - Phantom 4 RTK

A used phantom 4 RTK doesn't give up anything to the 3e in accuracy, just time and more batteries. If I was budget sensitive that's definitely a good idea.

You need to give more information like what kind of precision you are looking for and if you plan on using PPK, RTK or GCP’s. I wouldn’t recommend the matrice 210 as the RTK they have is very poor. Have you considered a phantom 4 RTK? It’s decently cheaper than the M3E with capabilities that you are looking for. If you shop around you can find them for around 2K usd.

Unfortunately I know it has RTK in its name but that is only for in flight accuracy. Older drones like that used to just fly away or get lost, that’s why they added the RTK system. The onboard RTK doesn’t write geolocation information to the images. You would again need to look into adding a third party controller to try to achieve PPK/RTK with that drone. Achieving an accurate model can be expensive due to the need of a gps system. I still feel your best option is the phantom 4 RTK v2. It is still used by many professionals and is the next step down from a M3E. Otherwise I would consider removing the accuracy requirement and only trying to achieve precision. You could also consider a Mavic 2 enterprise but those can be hard to find. Correction: the Matrice 210 RTK v2 does write the geolocation to the images, the original did not. So it should work if you can get one for a decent price.

I used to do all my photogrammetry work with first a DJI phantom 4 pro, then I modified it with an onboard emlid gnss for on the fly rtk positioning. Then, I bought the DJI phantom 4 rtk. Then I had to buy American drones. The phantom 4 pro still remains the best inexpensive drone for that. The camera has a mechanical shutter as well. It worked well for me. I still have one P4P v2 unopened that is RID compliant and used as a possible backup. Now it is collecting dust.

I started at the phantom 4 and mavic air but took a long break and the mini 4k is what got me back into it and having fun then you will want to upgrade for video quality and so on lol. The mini 4k is a great fun drone to fly in low wind to non wind events.

DJI minis are about the best you'll get. i don't have a mini but I'm still running my mavic pro platinum and a phantom 4. pretty sure the mini outperforms both of those 

It won't get bricked but depending on FAA changes it could make the drones illegal to fly. I can't legally fly my DJI Phantom 4 because it doesn't have a remote ID broadcast module. I can get an external module to attach to it, but that's beside the point I'm trying to make.

Yea, no i was being sarcastic, it is a good point to make. My problem is, I use my mav2p for personal flights while im traveling for work... the small travel bag is kinda a big selling point for me. A lot of time my work truck is loaded down, front to back, bottom to top and I get very little room for personal items. I tried taking a p4 in a hard case with me one time and yea... it was a nightmare.

I fly a Potensic Atom, it's alright, no major complaints. It's far less sophisticated than my phantom 4.

A lot of the restrictions have to do with genuine safety concerns that could easily be regarded as nuisance rules but let's not forget one thing: it's because of a massive surplus of dumbasses in the general public that these common sense rules are needed at all. I didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about until I started to follow drone courses and trainings and then I understood. Problem is that people think drones are cool toys, and maybe they are when used withing the proper guidelines, but in the wrong hands they can (depending on the size/weight) take out the power service to a community, or a jet or an ambulance heli from the sky. Toys or not, they are considered aircraft and fall under the same laws and regulations as recreational and commercial aircraft. Once that is made clear, then it's easier to decide if buying/and flying a drone really is something you want to do with your free time, especially if you're living in an area with limited opportunity for drone flight. I can tell you from personal experience that after the initial kick from seeing what my Phantom could do, I got a bit bored and the thing just collected dust in my office. That was back before COVID and at that time the laws were evolving so I got nervous just thinking about taking it out. Plus, I didn't dare fly too far with it because of the stories of unreliable reception with the controller. That's all changed now seeing how far the tech has come in the last 6 years. Now the main motivation of taking the drone out is all about the camera on board. For me, it's just a flying camera to get a perspective you can't get from the ground.

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".