DJI - Mavic 3E

M350/M400/ Matrice 4E are the ways to go in my eyes. Mavic 3E shortly behind them, most affordable but least robust platform.

Well, "do the same thing" is a very very broad statement. I can transport people in a Honda civic and fit it in my garage. I can also transport people in a tour bus. That's doing the same thing right? For more direct context. I own a mini 4 pro, with access to a m3e and a m300/l1. Yes, I can get some nice looking photos from them. M4p to m3e gets me true mission planning (IYKYK) RTK, optics and sensor that supports higher altitude and faster flight time. M300 still larger supports the lidar payload for a completely different league of mapping abilities, RTK and mission planning. These are gross over simplifications of comparing them but gives you the 100' AGL overview. And yes, I do use all 3. The m4p lives in my truck and if I have a loan survey type property to map, small (1/4-1/2 acre) lot and interference from tree cover, I'm going to send it. I'm flying my photo mission freestyle vs your standard nadir/oblique. Compared to the m3e it's much cheaper in the worst case catastrophic damage or loss and more agile for this like the civic running grubhub etc. I'd be delighted to help comparing other scenarios and which craft would be most suitable for each.

I’m flying the M3E and M300. My boss told me I could purchase an M4E but only if I sell my M3E. I want both so I’ll have a small form factor backup. I’m holding off for now. The M3E does what I need very well. I’ll get the M4 in the future but I’m not in a rush.

Not a problem. Also not sure which country you are in, but in the US one other fairly large consideration is if your students can propose Chinese drones. If so the easy button will be the DJI Matrice 4 or DJI Mavic 3E. IMO the best non-Chinese mapping drone for construction purposes is the Wingtra. Either way good luck and thank you for providing your students an opportunity to see technology and construction!

The P4 is a good drone and we used one for years. However, for the money, an M3E is a huge upgrade. Better camera, faster camera, longer flight times, etc. Plus the controller software is so nice. If you get to the point where you are doing a lot of flights, and you will, the M3E is an absolute workhorse that yields great results.

I would really recommend spending the money on the Mavic 3E or even Matrice 4E. Ask around your department, there's a good chance that other projects could make use of it, and would split the cost. We went through this at my university a few years ago, and banned the purchase of drones outside of the DroneLab, so the DroneLab can get proper equipment that projects can rent for cheap. Having 4 Air 3S flying 4 times a year costs as much as having a M3E flying 12 times a year, and everybody gets better data.

The best photogrammetry camera for the M300/M350 is the P1, in my opinion. You could put a Phase One on it, but the integration won't be nearly as good. If you want something like the Mavic 3E, I suggest the Mavic 3E. It's brilliant. The Matrice 4E is the newer, flashier version, but for pure photogrammetry work, it's not that different.

The "Field handling" section got me lose any kind of trust in their seriousness. How can they claim that it's harder to deploy a Mavic 3E compared to their big weird thing? Their (lack of) accuracy claims are also pretty much unfounded. Their selection of cameras are more or less competitive compared the P1 (and its options) and the M4E (very different main camera than the 4T). Image quality isn't meaningfully different, and their minimum flight height (min GSD) is much higher as their unwieldy machine can't safely fly low and slow. Nothing is gimballed from what I can see, so their only (though repeated) claim of oblique is through the wide angle lens... By the way, your dismissive tone isn't appreciated. I'm a qualified surveyor, MSc in engineering, PhD in photogrammetry, and I teach geomatics, geodesy and surveying at university. I understand the spec sheets, I hate the marketing BS.

I have flown an Air 2S, Mini 3 Pro, Mini 4 Pro, Mavic 3, Mavic 3E and a Matrice M30. I get the best photos with the Mavic 3 and 3E since they both have a 4/3rds wide camera sensor. They are also good at night. The Mavic 3E has a mechanical shutter which none of the consumer drones have. This virtually eliminates rolling shutter effects and makes for sharper photos. The Air 2S has a 1" sensor and can shoot 5.1K video. Still shots are also very good. My Mini 4 Pro takes surprisingly decent video, but still photos have a lot of artifacts due to the compression and the small sensor. If you want DSLR level quality, you will need to go up to an Inspire 3 or an RTK 350 which can mount a number of really high end sensors.

Light winds blow my Mini 3 Pro and Mini 4 Pro around like leaves above 15-20 mph or so. Worse than that, it drains the battery really fast if you are holding position or flying into the wind. Even with the + battery, you might get 40 minutes flying with the wind and 11 minutes flying home against the wind meaning you probably won't make it. My Mavic 3E has pretty good wind resistance being a much more powerful drone and one I'd take out in moderate winds - watching the wind speeds and the battery percentage remaining. My Matrice M30 is a pretty stable platform in the wind, but probably not something you'd want to pack while climbing.

I use a Mavic 3E and before that, a plain Mavic 3 for the 4/3rds 20 mpx sensor for larger files that I can work with in Photoshop. I am a photographer and originally got into drones as a way of having a lens in the sky. You can get Mavic 3's for a good price - they fly great, have long flight times, and have a 7x telephoto that has great reach. If you're on a real budget, for a few hundred dollars, you can get an Air 2S which has a 1" sensor and takes decent photos and videos. Here's an example of what you can get out of the Mavic 3 camera: https://preview.redd.it/466p050jgakf1.jpeg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e542b8ae43e183dbe29c24d363e0bd958d624acf

I do this work with an Mavic 3E. You really need models with the mechanical shutter for the lowest rolling shutter effects. I did photogrammetry work with my Matrice M30 - a recent job was of a Conservation area - it took 45 minutes and a battery change with the Matrice and 15 minutes with the Mavic 3E.

A phantom 4 rtk is still top of the line for survey grade mapping. Next step up would be a Mavic 3E but, like you said, its a bit confusing with DJI right now. I still occasionally use a phantom 4 pro at my survey firm alongside pix4d for processing data.

For all intents and purposes, the Phantom 4 was replaced by the Mavic 3E. It's no longer supported but you can still buy batteries and replacement propellers so that you can use the drone for as long as you'd like. I fly frequently within one of the most obnoxious areas in the country, the Washington DC FRZ. Nothing within the inner limits, but I have had dozens of FAA waivers to fly within the 15 mile radius. I've also flown adjacent to a number of military bases, all fairly recently with a Phantom 4 Pro v2. You should have no issues with a phantom 4 RTK outside of the government going nuclear and bricking all DJI drones, which I doubt they would do to currently compliant drones. Your drone is a workhorse and could easily provide you with years of good data and would last you well until after we know what is going to happen long-term with DJI. If they manage to get past this current madness, I'd keep your eye out for a Mavic 4 announcement eventually (I'd love a 3E but they're hard as hell to get these days for obvious reasons). Just make sure that any drone you get for mapping has a mechanical shutter. This goes for pretty much any company. As for US made drones... sadly there really aren't too many good options right now. They're expensive as hell and untested with plenty of quirks and no pedigre. What kind of work do you do in Alaska? Is it fairly wide open swaths of land? Or more urban? I've been eyeing the WingtraOne recently as its made in Switzerland, has a vertical take off, and has the stupid fast speed of a fixed wing drone. But it's also significantly more expensive than a DJI.

Wow still a lot compared to the $4,500 I invested in my M3E. I like the versatility of this drone

I did my renewal with SteelCity drones last month. 1 year for the M3E was $375

If the constraint is speed + precision, I don't think photogrammetry is the best way to go. From a distance it looks like a good idea, but don't forget that going from photogrammetry to geospatial data requires a lot of processing, which will take a long time if we're talking about a volume of 20km of road. Furthermore, no, precision is achievable with a good drone like the M3E M4E M350..., but to ensure/justify precision you'll need to set up GCP (i.e. place targets on the ground that you'll survey using GPS) before the flight. So in the end I'm not really convinced that the time saving is there. For trees, yes, it's a problem, but if the roads are of normal width, a drone flying at 10/15m to stay under the canopy will easily be able to take the full-width road. If your markets are large and mainly road-based, consider the option of vehicle-mounted lidar, or vehicle-mounted slam. You'll get speed, live point clouds and precision. But it's expensive.