I've found Dronedeploy good for collecting the raw data. Dronedeploy has some interesting apps in the internal Dronedeploy app store.
Pix4D also collects the raw images and takes it up a notch, giving you additional route patterns.
Both Dronedeploy and Pix4D offer free trials.
The following site will make it possible to take up new Pro trials in Dronedeploy and Pix4D under as different users, if you are smart about how you use it:
(
https://www.33mail.com/)
- this won't help you export maps from your previous trial though, you'll have to do that during the same trial period that you uploaded it in. It'll only help you to create new mapping projects as a Pro user.
I was able to create a 1.1TB (TIF) orthomosaic map of about 95.9 hectares at 185m altitude with about 85% overlap. I got resolution of about 5.6cm/pixel.
Dronedeploy presents an upper limit on how many photos and also on the total size of the photos you can upload to generate the map. I've found the predicted and actual amount of data produced is often different and it is sometimes hard to predict if you'll be over, under or way under the upload limit when planning the map.
There are a range of sites which allow you to import the raw photos from Dronedeploy and Pix4D, and generate the map on your PC.
- QGIS Desktop
(Things can become a little technical if you go down this path but when done correctly there isn't any reason you shouldn't be able to produce an orthomosaic map of the quality that Dronedeploy produces for you)
Here is an example of what I created using 2 Mavic batteries and 30 mins flight time (the original is 1.1Tb, this is a crude screenshot)
https://mavicpilots.com/media/screenshot_20180212-012621.1600/full
Happy to help anyone who needs help getting started with mapping
Cheers
Yannie