On May 18th, 2023, DJI unveiled an upgrade to its flagship Matrice 300 RTK (M300 RTK), via the new Matrice 350 RTK (M350 RTK). We’re going to break down the difference between the M300 and M350.

Comparing the new Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced and its upgraded thermal sensor and zoom camera to the existing M2E Dual and M2E Zoom.

Today we have guest author and pilot, Jim Crume, discussing the results he found when testing three DJI drones with and without the use of Ground Control Points. It is an excellent test and we appreciate Jim letting us re-post his original article. 

Today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that the “blanket” altitude authorization of 200 feet for Section 333 exemption holders has been increased to 400 feet.  This essentially doubles the approved commercial UAV flight height legally defined by the FAA.  While our testing has found that for orthomosaic creation the ideal height for a 12MP camera, like the one on the DJI Phantom 3, is about 200 – 250 feet, this new ruling by the FAA opens things for infrastructure inspections. 

Current technology on UAVs provides variations of a few systems, all gas, all electric (lithium), solar power to charge onboard lithium batteries, hybrid gas-powered generators that charge onboard lithium batteries, fuel cell batteries, and lastly tethered drones running like a vacuum would.  I’m not sure which system is going to prove to be the most versatile, but here is a discussion of the technologies as they stand today.