Welcome to the Q1 2025 Drone Buying Tips thread. This thread helps keep the forum cleaner by grouping all “What drone should I buy?” posts in one place, as those posts are not allowed under Rule 2.5.
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What’s the best drone for capturing stunning scenery? Not national parks but places like forests with fall colors or breathtaking landscapes. I’m using a Mini 3 for practice, but by year’s end, I’d like a drone with an incredible camera for really doing justice to the beauty of these spots.
Edited as per mod suggestion (thanks for pointing it out!).
Country: USA
Budget: Under $4,000
Purpose: Photography
Other needs: Should be durable and able to handle various environments. I’d also like it to be commercially usable.
@Westley
You might want to check out the Mavic 3 Pro with the Fly More Combo. It’s well within your budget and leaves room for extras like a hard case, multi-charger, and more batteries.
Oli said: @Westley
You might want to check out the Mavic 3 Pro with the Fly More Combo. It’s well within your budget and leaves room for extras like a hard case, multi-charger, and more batteries.
Oli said: @Westley
Don’t forget to include all the required details: Country, budget, purpose, and any special requirements. It helps us give better advice.
I bought some land in New England, USA. It’s seen a lot of use over the years—everything from a wood mill to a gravel pit to an indoor cannabis farm. It’s a mix of buildings, a big sand pit, and some piles of debris, surrounded by forest.
I’m working on cleaning it up and turning it into meadows with trails as a long-term retirement project.
I need a drone for photogrammetry, 2D/3D site mapping, and land surveys. It’ll also be used to document progress over time. Wind resistance would be great too.
Budget: Around $5,000, but I can go higher if needed.
A couple of years ago, I got overwhelmed by the complexity of photogrammetry. It seemed like drones needed specific SDK features, the right OS, and compatible software for processing maps and models. DJI seemed to be separating enterprise features from consumer ones, and the market was confusing.
Now, I’m looking for recommendations on a hardware and software setup for site/project management that does mapping and modeling well. There are startups claiming they can use data from regular drones to make high-quality models, but I’m not sure how much of that is real.
@Zen
The Mavic 3 Enterprise would suit your needs perfectly. With your budget, you can get the drone and a bunch of batteries. If accuracy is critical, consider adding the RTK module.
Olin said:
I’m looking to replace my 3DR Solo. With new rules possibly banning foreign drones, I want something NDAA compliant.
Country: USA
Budget: $2,000
Use: Fun flying, videos/photos, personal hobby.
With a $2,000 budget, it’ll be tough to find an NDAA-compliant drone. The cheapest options in that category start at around $7,000.
If this is just for hobby use, I’d reconsider the need for NDAA compliance. For now, DJI drones aren’t banned, and existing ones are expected to stay functional. Congress is reviewing DJI’s compliance, and public feedback on banning drones from China is open until March 4th.
@Oli
Thanks for explaining! This is a gift, and I wasn’t aware of the politics or costs. I’d read that non-NDAA drones might lose registration in the future. I don’t want to spend over $1,000 on something that could end up grounded.
Are there any American-made drones, like 3DR, still around?
@Olin
Unfortunately, American-made drones for hobby use have disappeared. Companies in the USA now focus entirely on enterprise or military-grade drones.
Nico said:
I hope this thread helps cut down all the repetitive posts clogging the forum.
It’s already helping a bit. We’ve been manually removing those posts, and one of the mods set up an auto-removal system to redirect purchase advice questions here.