so anyway i've been trying to get into the commercial inspection side of things, figured roofing would be a good entry point since there's tons of contractors around here who could use the service. got my 107, got a decent setup (mini 3 pro, i know i know), and landed my first actual paying client - a guy who owns like 6 rental properties and wants condition reports on all of them.

went out today for the first one and it did not go great. the house is in a pretty dense neighborhood with trees everywhere and i kept getting proximity warnings and the footage was honestly just okay. not terrible but definitely not what i was picturing when i sold him on the idea. the automatic obstacle avoidance kept making the drone do weird stuff when i was trying to hold a steady position to capture the flat section over the garage, and wind was picking up which didn't help.

is the mini 3 just not the right tool for this or is this a me problem? i've flown plenty but mostly just recreational stuff in open areas. also not sure if i should be shooting in 4k and then zooming in post or if there's a better way to structure the inspection flight itself. genuinely not sure i delivered what this guy is expecting and i have 5 more properties to do next week.

the mini 3 is fine for roofing, people use them for this all the time. the issue is probably your flight pattern more than the gear. for residential roofs you really want to be doing a structured grid or orbit at a consistent altitude rather than kind of freestyling it, that way the coverage is systematic and you can actually stitch it into something useful if the client ever wants orthomosaic output. apps like Dronelink or even just DJI's own waypoint stuff can help you lock in a repeatable pattern.

the obstacle avoidance thing in tight spaces with trees is just annoying, a lot of inspectors turn it down or off and fly manually in obstacle-dense environments. obviously that requires you to actually be confident in your stick control which from what you're describing maybe practice that first before the next job.

honestly been there. my first few inspection jobs were rough too and i had way more drone experience than i thought i needed. the flying part isn't the hard part, it's knowing what to capture and in what order so the client report actually makes sense. i'd look up some roofing inspection checklists from actual roofing contractors and reverse engineer what imagery you need to satisfy each line item. once i started doing that my clients stopped having questions about the deliverable and started just asking when the next one was scheduled.

also shoot 4k for sure, zoom in post is totally valid, the mini 3 sensor holds up fine at 1:1 for most defect documentation. flat roofs are actually easier than pitched ones in my experience so hopefully the other properties go smoother.