okay so kind of a weird situation. a local surveying company reached out to me because they saw some of my work on instagram and asked if i do photogrammetry mapping. i said yes because i have done a little bit messing around with DroneDeploy on a small job last year but like... not at any serious commercial level. they want to map a fairly large agricultural site, something like 400 acres, for crop analysis or something along those lines.

i have a Mavic 3 and i know thats not really the ideal tool for serious mapping work but its what ive got. im part 107 certified. my question is basically ? should i just be honest with them that im not super experienced with this specific type of work, or do i take it and figure it out as i go? i dont want to mess up their data and make a bad name for myself but also this could be a really good opportunity to break into a totally different side of the industry.

anyone dealt with something similar, jumping into a job type you werent fully prepared for?

be honest with them, seriously. not in a way that tanks the opportunity but just something like "i typically work in x area but ive done mapping work and i want to make sure i understand your specific deliverable requirements before we scope this out." most clients actually respect that way more than someone who just says yes to everything and then delivers garbage data. agricultural mapping for crop analysis usually means they want NDVI outputs or at minimum really clean orthomosaics with accurate GCPs and if you show up not knowing what ground control points are thats going to be a bad day for everyone involved.

the Mavic 3 can do decent mapping work honestly, its not a Phantom 4 RTK or an eBee but for 400 acres with proper GCPs and good overlap settings you can get usable results. id spend a week really digging into the workflow before you commit to anything.

tbh i'd probably just take it and grind through the learning curve but im also someone who learns best by just doing things and panicking slightly. the surveying company probably knows more about what they need than you think and if you ask good questions upfront they might basically tell you exactly what outputs they want. worst case you underprice it, spend way more hours than expected, but come out the other side actually knowing how to do ag mapping which is a skillset worth having. just my two cents though, the more cautious approach the other person mentioned is probably the smarter play if you care about your reputation in that market.