so ive been doing roofing estimates for about 8 years and someone on another forum mentioned they use drones now for initial assessments before sending anyone up. my current setup is just a Mini 3 Pro which i mostly fly recreationally but i figured why not try it on a job site last week.

honestly the footage was fine for flat commercial roofs, could clearly see ponding areas and some membrane bubbling near the HVAC units. but when i tried to get close to a steep residential pitch to check for missing shingles i kept getting weird wind buffeting from the roof edge thermals or whatever, had to keep my distance more than i wanted.

my question is ? is there actually a meaningful difference using something like a Mavic 3 Enterprise or the Autel EVO II Pro for this vs just a standard prosumer bird? like is the image processing different or is it mostly just the support contract stuff that makes it enterprise pricing? feels like a lot of money if the sensor is basically the same thing.

the sensor gap is real but maybe not where you'd expect it. the bigger thing for actual roofing work imo is the thermal option ? if you're doing any moisture detection or checking for insulation failures the radiometric thermal on something like the M3E with a thermal attachment is night and day vs trying to eyeball membrane condition in RGB. for pure visual stuff though yeah you're probably 80% of the way there with the Mini 3.

the wind handling is just physics, smaller aircraft will always struggle more at roof edge turbulence. i fly a Matrice 30T for utility infrastructure and even that thing has moments near tall structures. you kind of learn to approach from the leeward side and keep altitude until you know what the air is doing around the building.

we use a standard Mavic 3 Classic for most of our roofing assessments and it works fine honestly. the enterprise stuff is really more about the ecosystem ? the waypoint mission planning for repeatability, being able to prove to insurance clients you flew the exact same path last quarter vs this quarter. if youre just doing one-off estimates i wouldnt bother.