professional drone DJI M300 RTK

Aerialsolutions advises on the purchase of a professional drone, there are several manufacturers that offer drones. The market leader is the well-known DJI with Parrot in its wake, who are now increasingly focusing on professional drones now that the market for leisure drones has declined a little. Apart from multirotor drones, Aerialsolutions also distributes Quantum Systems VTOL fixed wings.

The first thing to ask is what missions you want to carry out with a drone. There are some important parameters such as flight duration, choice of payload, transport, etc.

For drone inspections, a thermal camera and a zoom camera are important factors, while for mapping and surveys, high resolution and centimetre-accurate RTK GPS are important.

If you regularly fly over populated areas, safety plays an important role and an aircraft with more than 4 propellers is a better choice, although DJI has developed a new algorithm in the design of the new DJI M300 that makes it still controllable on only 3 engines and allows the aircraft to make an emergency landing in a safe place.

The M300 has a 4-in-1 integrated payload with, in addition to a thermal camera and a zoom camera, an FPV camera and a laser range finder that allows one to read exact location data from a given point on the ground. With a flight time of 45 minutes, this is already a big step forward where previously a drone could only fly for 18 minutes.

If you want a slightly more compact and discreet device, the Parrot Anafi USA is probably a better choice. With its 500 grams it is extremely lightweight. A 320 pixel thermal camera and a 32x zoom make this small device a competitor to the larger professional devices. However, this drone is more geared towards public safety agencies such as police and army units.

For example, if you need a long flight time for mapping large areas, the VTOL fixed wing is the best option. The VTOL is the best of both worlds, take off and land like a multirotor and fly like a fixed wing which allows you to stay in the air for about 90 minutes.

Last but not least is the cost of it all. The Parrot Anafi USA is around 7000€ where the DJI M300 goes towards 20000€ all included. Of course, the cameras on the M300 package are better than those on Parrot Anafi USA, especially the thermal camera which has a 640×512 pixel sensor compared to 320×256 pixels on the Parrot. The zoom camera on the M300 has an optical zoom where the Parrot uses a digital zoom.

If you still have questions, we are happy to advise you on the purchase of a professional drone.