okay so this has been bouncing around in my head for a while and i finally want to just ask people who have actually done it. ive been shooting real estate and some commercial architecture work with my drone for about two years, using the stock camera that came with it which is honestly pretty capable but ive been hitting the ceiling on it lately especially in terms of dynamic range and the way it renders highlights. basically every interior exterior shot where theres a window involved is a headache in post.

the idea would be to go to something like a third party payload system so i can put an actual dedicated camera up there, something with a larger sensor. i know this means dealing with a proper gimbal, payload weight limits, probably a different drone altogether, all that stuff. the question is whether the image quality jump is actually as significant as i think it will be or if im just frustrated with limitations that better shooting technique could fix. anyone made this jump specifically for architectural or real estate shooting

the jump is real but honestly the workflow headaches are also real so just go in with eyes open. when i switched to a larger sensor payload the footage quality was immediately noticeable ? the way it handled high contrast scenes was just night and day compared to the integrated camera. but you're also now dealing with lens choices, making sure your gimbal is tuned for that specific body and lens combo, and payload weight which affects your flight time more than people expect. for real estate specifically the thing that helped me most wasnt even sensor size, it was getting a gimbal that could tilt straight down smoothly for overhead courtyard shots without any jello. so if you go this route spend as much time researching the gimbal as the camera.

tbh for real estate i wonder if the issue is more about shooting technique and bracketing than the actual sensor. like are you doing HDR brackets from the air? that can salvage a lot of the window blown out situation without needing to rebuild your whole rig. not saying dont upgrade, just that ive seen people spend a lot of money on payload setups and then realize the problem was something else entirley.