so ive been doing roofing estimates for about 12 years and my business partner finally talked me into trying a drone for the inspections instead of climbing up every single time. picked up a mavic 3 enterprise a few months back and honestly for flat commercial roofs its been pretty solid but im running into issues on steep residential pitches where i just cant get the camera angle right to actually see if theres lifting on the shingles or flashing problems near the valleys.

im shooting in 4k and zooming in on the footage after the fact but half the time it still looks ambiguous. like i can see something might be wrong but i cant tell my customer definitively. wondering if anyone else doing roof work has figured out a better workflow or if im just expecting too much from this thing. also the oblique angle stuff ? how steep can you actually go before the footage is basically useless

the zoom-in-after approach is killing you. you need to actually hover closer and do slow methodical passes at like 10-15 feet above the ridge line rather than trying to get everything in one wide shot. for steep pitches i come in almost perpendicular to the slope face itself, not just straight down. takes longer but you get actual actionable footage. the mavic 3 thermal version would also change your life for finding moisture intrusion by the way ? been using it for two seasons now and clients flip out when you show them a heat signature under what looks like a fine surface.

cant speak to roofing specifically but i do a lot of tower and industrial work and the oblique angle problem is real across all inspection types honestly. one thing that helped me was creating a proper flight plan instead of just freestyling it ? even something simple in litchi where you set waypoints at consistent distances from each surface. that way you get repeatable coverage and you can actually compare shots over time. also for documentation purposes clients take you way more seriously when you hand them something systematic instead of just a video you flew around