bit of a frustrating situation here. started doing residential and light commercial roof inspections about 8 months ago, mostly using a Mini 3 Pro which i know isnt the ideal tool but the clients in my area are small property management companies and they arent paying for enterprise tier gear. anyway the issue im running into is shadowed areas on north-facing slopes and around chimneys and dormers ? i'll miss stuff that ends up being visible to the contractor when they actually get up there and it makes me look bad even if the damage was genuinely hard to see from the angles i could safely fly.

ive tried going out earlier or later in the day to get lower sun angles and that helps sometimes but not always obviously. someone mentioned flying closer and doing a manual grid pattern at like 5-8 meters AGL instead of the auto mission altitude which was around 25m. makes sense but that gets uncomfortable near structures and my obstacle avoidance gets twitchy near rooftop features.

is there a lighting or sensor answer here or is this just a limitation of what im flying and i need to either upgrade or adjust what i promise clients. dont want to overpromise and then have a contractor make me look sloppy again

honestly the Mini 3 Pro is fine for basic visual roof inspection it's not the sensor thats your problem. the shadow issue is a real one and theres not a clean fix ? what i do is always schedule roof jobs for overcast days if i can manage it because diffuse light is way more forgiving than direct sun for spotting surface irregularities. flat even lighting means shadows dont hide anything and the colors are more accurate for spotting moisture staining and granule loss. clients dont care what the sky looks like in your photos as long as the detail is there.

the 5-8m AGL thing is also correct, doing a manual close pass around the perimeter and any areas of interest is just part of the job. get comfortable with it, slow down, use sport mode off so you have max braking distance. obstacle avoidance near a roofline is annoying but you can just turn it off for those close passes if you know what youre doing

tbh i had the same thing happen to me early on with a flat roof job and a TPO membrane that had delamination under a parapet wall. just could not get the angle. what i ended up doing after that is being upfront in my reports ? i'll note which areas had limited visibility due to structural obstruction or lighting conditions and recommend a physical spot check for those specific zones. contractors actually appreciate that because youre not pretending you got coverage you didnt. and it protects you when something gets found later. the worst thing is a report that claims to be comprehensive and then isnt