Might be in the market for a new drone. Primary use would be taking aerial photos of production facilities and oilfield operations, or taking photos at our ranch. Let me know what y'all think. Thanks in advance.

The Mavic 2 line is best available currently IMO. They have different models which you can match to suit your needs.

If extreme portability is what you are looking for, the Mavic Mini is legit. I have it and absolutely love it. It can do much of what big drones can do while being small enough to carry anywhere.

I took mine out to ranch to locate hogs. I now have the itch for a thermal drone to locate them at night. Good luck. Let us know where you land in your search.

Just wanted to second that even though the Mavic Mini is the "budget" option from DJI it is still a solid drone and may be the best choice for you even if money isn't an issue because of portability. The camera quality on the mini is 2.7k instead of 4k but don't let that scare you off. The videos are absolutely gorgeous and you are still able to get a very high level of detail from the video and pictures you take from it.

One thing I'd suggest is that if you go with a DJI drone go ahead and get the fly more combo with the extra batteries instead of just the drone when you get it. The Mavic Air 2 and Mini get around 30 minutes of flight time but you'd be amazed at how quick that can be.

Good advice above. The camera is more than sufficient for most. 2.7k is legit.

The fly more combo is a must. I use at least 2 batteries 80% of the time or more. I use all 3 about 50% of the time.

Have a phantom 4 pro and mavic pro. Like the p4p much better. One of the biggest pluses is very small but important to me. The ability to take still shots while videoing.

Have heard the mavic pro 2 is much better than the mavic pro. The first generation has gimbal breakage issues due to poor design.

My brother is looking to buy a drone for his ranch. It's in the panhandle and the winds get up pretty high there. Any recommendations with winds in mind?

Mavic Air 2

bumping this post....was looking at getting a dji mini 2.

Would mostly use it to film show calves. Live in the panhandle so, wind is an issue.

Any recommendations/advice?

If wind is an issue, go with the Mavic 2 line instead of the mini. The heavier, larger drone can handle higher wind speeds and will feel more stable in flight. Less jitter when holding course in heavy wind.

The Mavic 2 pro has a better camera at 20mp compared to the Mavic 2 zoom at 12mp but the zoom can zoom in on pics. I'd pick between those, based on your needs.

We've got a number of Mavic Pro Platinums here at work and they all work great.

However, any use of them on or around gov't facilities or on gov't programs is probably a no go (DJI products are banned by a lot of federal agencies). Of course, the CCFD operates a couple DJI Matrices that works pretty good too, but they're not federal.

We're currently researching these drones since they ARE approved by the gov't. Kind of leaning to the Skydio.

We also have several 3DR Iris+ drones that we play with but those are personally owned by me and our NASA guy. I got mine off Ebay for a great price. It also works with Mission Planner which is an open source Ground Control Station software package. I know DJIs will work with UgCS but that requires a license.

Ag with kids said:

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We also have several 3DR Iris+ drones

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Whoa. That's a classic.

boy09 said:

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Ag with kids said:

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We also have several 3DR Iris+ drones

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Whoa. That's a classic.

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I know. But, the guy on eBay apparently bought up a lot of their stock of drones when they dropped out of the commercial market. I got a hell of a deal. So did our NASA guy - he actually bought 2 of them. He lost his first one in the Gulf of Mexico this summer.

Mine came with (essentially) a Pelican case, a Tarot 2 axis gimbal, a GoPro Hero 4, 4 batteries, a DroneDeploy antenna, and 2 extra sets of rotors. For $450. Hell, all of that stuff was worth more than $450 so I got the Iris+ for free. Essentially, this one, but cheaper and with more...

Bump on this again.

Have never owned/operated a drone but we want one for our upcoming sailing/beach vacation. Are the ones you guys have mentioned here overkill?

Any DJI drone will meet your needs. Perhaps the mini 2?

my son recently purchased a DJI mini2 and it is really cool. About the size of the palm of your hand and has a 4k camera and around 25 min flight time.

Photo is from a recent expedition where he took some video/photos of my Vette.