Mapping activities
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Meta4
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The P4 pro is probably the best affordable drone for mapping missions.
Now that the P4P is retired I would grab one online as soon as you can before they're gone. From a different perspective I would encourage everyone to look at the Yuneec H520. If you are serious about mapping it is a much more versatile and redundant platform, but it does cost about twice as much. Still much less expensive than any other mapping drones that compare in specs. They even have rtk model that is half the cost of the P4RTK.
Can you comment as to why you think that it's more versatile? I can see the redundancy case because of the extra motors, but I feel that their integrated screen and OS makes it less versatile, kind of like the P4P+. There are certainly a lot more apps, utilities, and accessories available for the P4P. Just curious.
While it is an integrated screen it is not quite sandboxed like the P4+ and RTK controllers. It is capable of running DataPilot (their native flight planner), SiteScan and Pix4D. I am working with DroneDeploy, but it is just in process. The camera configuration is a big plus as well. There is the E50, E90 and E10T (thermal) that are all hot-swappable. The landing gear retracts and the camera can yaw 360d with an unobstructed view because of the retractable landing gear. It also gets about 5 minutes more flight time and mapping with the E90 can run faster during a mission than a P4P.
Does DataPilot offer terrain following? Their website says that it's offered, but doesn't provide details. The E90 looks like it's about the same sensor size as the P4P (1") and I wouldn't want to go smaller. It's certainly a more expensive option than the P4P, but cheaper than the I2 or M200 (with an X4S camera, if you can find one).
The only things I want are a reasonably large sensor (1" minimum), the ability to have terrain following (SRTM standard, uploading my own data isn't necessary), and about a 20 minute flight duration. The rest is optional.
Yes, DataPilot has terrain following and uses the same Google SRTM that everyone else uses. To get a larger sensor I think your are going to have to get a bigger rig and much more expensive camera. The one thing that the P4P really did right and makes me sad to see it go was the mechanical shutter. You have to spend much more money to get the specs with that otherwise.
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