Buy for the work

A normal automated flight captures the roof. Afterward, your crew can fly manually for single photos, use the zoom lens to look closely at an area, or record a quick video orbit when that is all the job needs. The right drone supports all of that without pushing you into a bigger, more expensive aircraft than the work requires.

Starting from scratch? I recommend the DJI Matrice 4 Enterprise. Already own a Mavic 3 Enterprise? Keep flying it. Both fit this work, and I can check another enterprise drone before you replace equipment.

Where roofers waste drone money

The mistakes I see are not about picking the wrong brand. They are about buying the wrong size of solution:

  • Buying into the M30 or M400 class. Those are heavy inspection platforms priced for work a Matrice 4 Enterprise already handles.
  • Paying over $10,000 for a drone. For commercial roofing capture, you do not need to.
  • Expecting your crew to get their Part 107 license in their free time. The license is real study — budget company time for it, and use a training company that does this every day. I can point you to ones I trust.
  • Going super cheap. A Mini-class drone will fly, but it will not perform at the scale a commercial program asks of it.

What matters before you buy

On the camera, look for built-in optical zoom, not digital zoom. Pay more attention to sensor size than the megapixel count. A 20 MP camera on a 4/3 sensor beats a 48 MP camera on a 1/2-inch sensor.

The aircraft still will not decide what to capture, process the flight, or make the result useful in the office. Roofing in 3D handles the processing, hosting, and support. The drone stays your tool, your crew, and your schedule.

The real total cost

Budget the aircraft, licensing, and paid training time together.

If you want to test the process first, I'll find a local pilot and have one of your buildings flown. You pay the pilot's normal bill, and I walk you through the rest before you buy.

  • Aircraft kit: the drone, batteries, and controller should land well under $10,000.
  • Part 107 preparation: roughly $150 per person, about 15 hours of course video, and about five more hours of study.
  • Part 107 exam: roughly another $150 per person.
  • Company time: treat licensing and practice as paid training, not homework.