Help me spend $7000...

msucasey · Mar 14, 2017

Question... I have up to $7000 to spend on a drone with camera(s) and accessories. I already own a Mavic Pro. My goals are to do Real Estate photo/video, Roof inspections/measurements, Various commercial/industrial inspections, and at some point move into Agricultural inspection/mapping.

What do I purchase?

tbenjaminsen · Mar 14, 2017

Wouldn't the obvious answer be an Inspire 2 with the X5S camera?

msucasey · Mar 14, 2017

I am looking at the Inspire 1 Pro currently, but not sure. I am staying away from the Inspire 2 because you have to have an expensive license to use the footage. I forget what it is called, I'm sorry.

BlakPhoenix · Mar 14, 2017

Without knowing anything more than what you've mentioned, I would probably suggest the Matrice 200. It allows multiple cameras to be mounted simultaneously, including up to the X5S. It's more rugged (IP43) allowing for flying in light rain/snow and has all the obstacle avoidance features. It can also mount thermal imaging cameras as well as 3rd party cameras you may require for infrared light imaging, sonar, etc. if you need to go down that path. The main negative of the Matrice vs the Inspire 2 is the lower flight speed (23m/s vs 26m/s), although the Matrice has better flight time giving you more surveying per battery (35min vs 27min).

The Inspire is better for cinematography/videopgraphy since it has better built in features to store and retrieve large data files with CineCore & CineSSD, but if you don't need those then the Matrice series should do well for you.

Another thing to think about is redundancy, do you need propellor and battery redundancy? Both the Matrice 200 and Inspire 2 have battery redundancy but neither can survive a single prop failure. The next step up is the S1000+ or Matrice 600. These may be moving outside your price range, however do allow much larger payloads (DSLR & Cine cameras) as well as more precise flight controls, on top of the safety of flying (or as I would suggest returning to land) with 1 prop down.

BlakPhoenix · Mar 14, 2017

msucasey said:
I am looking at the Inspire 1 Pro currently, but not sure. I am staying away from the Inspire 2 because you have to have an expensive license to use the footage. I forget what it is called, I'm sorry.

Pretty sure that's only for certain video formats, not all formats it can handle.

LuvMyTJ · Mar 14, 2017

msucasey said:
I am looking at the Inspire 1 Pro currently, but not sure. I am staying away from the Inspire 2 because you have to have an expensive license to use the footage. I forget what it is called, I'm sorry.

Hello & welcome @msucasey. An Inspire 2 Activation Key of RAW & Apple ProRes activates the usage permission of CinemaDNG or Apple ProRes inside CineCore 2.0. It is expensive for the full deal, $1300 I believe.

Keep in mind, when you do commercial work you will also need to be properly certified and hold a part 107 to provide services like real estate photo/video, roof inspections/measurements, various commercial/industrial inspections, and agricultural inspection/mapping.