Answering your most asked question- “What drone is best for shooting Real Estate?” 

There is NO ‘best drone’ or ‘best car’ or best anything for that matter. It comes down to what works well for you and what you will get an extremely high quality of imagery from. 

 

Getting a DSLR like a Canon, Nikon or SONY mounted on a drone would be the ideal scenario for quality real estate photography, but it is not the most practical. The cost of getting a heavy-lift drone, the batteries, the risks, it’s just not worth it and really to be honest it’s just not viable, especially if what you are getting paid for small, residential properties may not justify your costs to put a heavy lift drone in the air all the time! 

 

Right now the Best drone for real estate work is either the Mavic 2 Pro, the Phantom 4 Pro or now the Mavic Air 2. 

 

Ok so let’s get into reviewing our 3 contenders: 

 

So with the Mavic 2 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro both of these have: 

• 1 inch sensor
• 20 megapixel camera
• Full manual mode for camera settings
• Automatic VR 360 shooting
• They both shoot in raw.

 

 

Now I would strongly recommend either the Mavic 2 Pro or Phantom 4 Pro for real estate work. 

If you have a similar drone like a DJI Mavic Mini or a Mavic Air, you can still get the same kind of shots but you are limited to a few things such as how far you can fly, app user interface the quality and reliability. If you’re going to invest in a drone for real estate work it’s best to get either the Mavic 2 Pro, the Phantom 4 Pro from the get-go. 

 

TIP: If you’re serious about drone work, spend a little more at the beginning, it’ll save you money in the long run!

 

Another really common question; What’s the difference between the Phantom 4 Pro vs Mavic 2 Pro vs Mavic Air 2?

 

We put together this in depth comparison table that highlights the key differences between the three drones if you want to know the finer details.

 

 

Personally, if you can’t decide between them I would go with the Mavic 2 Pro if you’re going to be doing more Real Estate still photography over video.

Why?

• It’s smaller
• It’s quieter with the noise reduction propellers
• It folds down, so it’s easy to throw in a camera or travel bag therefore making it very discreet
• Has Longer flight time (approx. 30 minutes) and range.

 

However, if you think you might be doing a variety of video and stills and maybe other drone work in the future like mapping or survey, then go with the Phantom 4 Pro. The Phantom shoots in 4K at 60 and is smoother with video and more stable in the air hands down. If we’re doing video we’d get the Phantom out over the Mavic every time!

 

 

Now the Mavic Air 2 is great, I think it’s fantastic with amazing features like

• Tracking people & objects
• Hyperlapse in 8K
• Shooting 4K at 60 frames.

But the biggest decision-maker for us is it’s the sensor size! it has a smaller sensor than the Mavic 2 Pro and the Phantom 4 Pro which both have 1 inch, which means it’s not so good in low light and the quality of the shot and pixels just isn’t there with the smaller sensors. 

These are my current recommendations for the BEST Drone for Real Estate in 2020. For more comparisons and how to get started in Real Estate photography check out our online Real Estate drone course.

 

Happy Flying!