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| Looking at getting my first big boy drone. I’ve played around plenty with the small hobby ones. But I would like to get a pretty serious one. I’ll mostly be doing crop scouting and analyzing our large drainage ditches and rivers for levee breaks where it’s difficult for a man to walk. Who do you guys recommend? I’ve looked at dji as they seem to be big in the Ag sector. My big concerns are flight range and flight time. Good camera but I’m not gonna be doing any professional photography here. Thanks guys. |
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North West IA/western AZ | Get the latest Mavic 2 Pro with the upgraded camera.
I’ve got an older Mavic Pro and I’m limited to 20 minute flights. I have flown up to 2 miles away and back. |
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NW Iowa | I have a mavic air. I like that it's compact and I can keep it in the truck with me at all times. I see they have an updated version. It would be a toss up between the PRO2 and the Air2 if I had money in my hands. The PRO2 has upgrade possibilities if you ever want to add crop sensing cameras whereas the Air does not. |
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southern MN | There is a love hate relationship with DJI. They are the most stupid and uncaring company to deal with as far as upgrades and catering to customers.
On the other hand they are top dog on cutting edge consumer level, easy to fly but very capable, drones.
So, you are probably going to look at a Mavic model, the Pro 2 is the really good camera, the Air is the pretty good camera with a little cheaper price.
There is also the Zoom, which seems a tad bit too complicated deal for the type of work we farmers do.
I enjoy flying the things, it doesn’t take much but it’s fun to fine tune the flying. I’m kind of a mess as to working the camera, I’m real happy on automatic settings because I’m not a big camera but, I’m overwhelmed trying to keep up with both flying and camera settings. So to me zoom would just be another distraction, I can fly closer or farther away.
If you do inspection type work, os spy on the neighbor sun bathing, the zoom is likely a handy feature?
Coin flip........
Edit: I have a Pro 2, and flies long distance, flies a little over 20 minutes. Temp and wind affect flying time, as well you need to land before the battery is used up, the drone gets anxious when the battery gets to 30% left and really wants to find home on its own, and rightly so. So if you maybe can fly 28 minutes, you might get 23 minutes on a good flight and some percent of battery left as you land.... camera is great, the upper settings are actually hard to use, not every computer can work with the higher definitions available. It’s nice to have the better camera available tho, more resolution means more info per frame, just need the software to use it. But is it used or not, only you know.
The Mavic Pro 2 has some good sensors that vibrate the controller if you fly too low, too close to something. Also will stop the drone for you. They aren’t perfect but they watch a lot most of the time. While I try to keep myself in control, that is handy if you are flying far away. It’s hard to keep track of trees and even elevation changes at a distance. Technically you aren’t supposed to fly past where you can see the drone by eye, so be mindful of the rules. They certainly can fly farther than that they have god communications with them now. Be mindful of tress or buildings between you they can block signals. I assume the other mavic models have the same sensors, but something to check if it’s important. I have flown my ditch to see the eroding banks, so that is low flying at a cockeyed angle, and there is the occasional tree on my meandering ditch, and so - the sensors are nice if you are doing that kind of work.
Well I think I’ve added on to this three times now, I should be done!
Edited by paul the original 7/17/2020 19:37
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Coles County, Illinois | I disagree with Paul. He hasn't seen uncaring companies until you try to get a Chinese company to refund the money you paid them for a product they won't ship to the USA. (Hubsan Zino 2) I ended up buying a Dji Mavic Air 2 Fly More. For crop scouting you want the best camera you can afford. Taking pictures and blowing them up on your home computer is better than trying to see whats going on with your cell phone. |
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North West IA/western AZ | Herbie56 - 7/18/2020 07:05
I disagree with Paul. He hasn't seen uncaring companies until you try to get a Chinese company to refund the money you paid them for a product they won't ship to the USA. (Hubsan Zino 2) I ended up buying a Dji Mavic Air 2 Fly More. For crop scouting you want the best camera you can afford. Taking pictures and blowing them up on your home computer is better than trying to see whats going on with your cell phone.
You do know where dji is located don't you? |
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Coles County, Illinois | Buster 50 - 7/18/2020 09:34
Herbie56 - 7/18/2020 07:05
I disagree with Paul. He hasn't seen uncaring companies until you try to get a Chinese company to refund the money you paid them for a product they won't ship to the USA. (Hubsan Zino 2) I ended up buying a Dji Mavic Air 2 Fly More. For crop scouting you want the best camera you can afford. Taking pictures and blowing them up on your home computer is better than trying to see whats going on with your cell phone.
You do know where dji is located don't you?
Yes I do. He said most. |
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Eastern ON | Also, to add to the DJI issues. They seem to release a new model every year, and the old ones are quickly forgotten and support is sparse. |
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East Central Indiana | phishstik - 7/19/2020 23:26
Also, to add to the DJI issues. They seem to release a new model every year, and the old ones are quickly forgotten and support is sparse.
DJI customer satisfaction is all over the place. I bought a new phantom 3 pro straight from their website in 2017 for $685 and have been thrilled with it. Its only problem is keeping the horizon level while strafing. I fly it more than the average drone owner. |
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NW iowa south of the CIty :) | This one looks good and has good reviews.
https://www.adorama.com/djimavica2fc.html?rfkref=productPage |
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Drone recommendation
