Hello all, private investigator in Florida looking to buy drone and software for accident scenes

[KnowMorePi]

Hello there Phantom Pilots! I'm a 36 yo private investigator in northwest Florida looking into buying a drone and software for accident scene reconstruction and I figured this would be a good place to start for information on which drone and software to buy. I have some experience with 4 rotor drones but nothing as fancy as a dji. Florida law does not allow me to use them for surveillance or would have had one years ago! (expectation of privacy laws) Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to sharing my drone adventures.

Thank you, John

 

[msinger]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[BigAl07]

Welcome to the forum.

First you'll want to study and get your Part 107 is you don't already. That's going to be required for this type of flying.

For software check out Pix4D as it's an industry leader but it's not cheap.

I'd opt for a min of Phantom4Pro for the aircraft.

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to the forum .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Hello,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Phantom Pilots forum.
I hope that you will be able to use the forum to further your safety knowledge and for the exchange of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in DJI quadcopters.
Enjoy the forum!
**You can look for local flyers here on this site - Regional Meet-Ups
*GO 4 APP MANUAL: DJI Go 4

 

[FL_Mike]

Hello there Phantom Pilots! I'm a 36 yo private investigator in northwest Florida looking into buying a drone and software for accident scene reconstruction and I figured this would be a good place to start for information on which drone and software to buy. I have some experience with 4 rotor drones but nothing as fancy as a dji. Florida law does not allow me to use them for surveillance or would have had one years ago! (expectation of privacy laws) Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to sharing my drone adventures.

Thank you, John

Welcome to the forum.

Personally, as a florida resident i'm glad we have laws that protect us from surveillance by UAS, particularly as that protection carries over to law enforcement. However, with that said stealth surveillance with a UAS would take a serious investment and be impractical in almost every circumstance.

Now, for your application either a mavic or a phantom would probably do well. Depending on the size of the scene you might need some stitching software to merge multiple photos into a single image. PT GUI might work well in that respect as well as Photoshop.

As for legal use you'll also need a part 107 certificate, but that will just take a few hours of study time and and $150 at a local testing facility.

Finally I would download airmap (free) so you can get an idea of where you can fly locally. NW FL has a lot of military traffic so some places you may have in mind to fly might be totally off limits. Its best to know what will be legal before you make any purchases.

Good luck and welcome. Explore the site, I've learned a lot from this site. Heck, I was already well prepared for the 107 before I even started studying for it due to the many posts here.

 

[WV. Rootman]

Welcome. I know your area very well, for longer then you have lived. lol I'll be there in 3 weeks visiting family.

I fly a phantom 4, so my knowledge on the Mavic is what I read on this forum.
I think a Mavic Pro or a Mavic 2 zoom. Mavic because they are small and very portable. They are a little quieter then the Phantom. The zoom on the Mavic 2 could be very handy. I don't know for sure, but I think the Mavic pro takes clearer pictures then the Mavic 2? If that is more money than you want to spend and you don't need that quality in your pictures then the Mavic air would do you well. Their obstacle avoidance can be a great help when flying low. Good luck.

 

[Meta4]

Hello there Phantom Pilots! I'm a 36 yo private investigator in northwest Florida looking into buying a drone and software for accident scene reconstruction and I figured this would be a good place to start for information on which drone and software to buy. I have some experience with 4 rotor drones but nothing as fancy as a dji. Florida law does not allow me to use them for surveillance or would have had one years ago! (expectation of privacy laws) Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to sharing my drone adventures.

DJI makes the best ready-to-fly drones and it the obvious choice.
The new Mavic 2 pro might be the best drone for your purposes as it is smaller and quieter than the current Phantoms.

Because consumer drones have very wideangle lenses, you would be disappointed with their abilities for surveillance

 

[Hyftihers5015]

Hello there Phantom Pilots! I'm a 36 yo private investigator in northwest Florida looking into buying a drone and software for accident scene reconstruction and I figured this would be a good place to start for information on which drone and software to buy. I have some experience with 4 rotor drones but nothing as fancy as a dji. Florida law does not allow me to use them for surveillance or would have had one years ago! (expectation of privacy laws) Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to sharing my drone adventures.

Thank you, John

well I know a great place where I find all my Drones its called TopRcToysandMore.com check it out.

 

[Dougcjohn]

Hello there Phantom Pilots! I'm a 36 yo private investigator in northwest Florida looking into buying a drone and software for accident scene reconstruction and I figured this would be a good place to start for information on which drone and software to buy. I have some experience with 4 rotor drones but nothing as fancy as a dji. Florida law does not allow me to use them for surveillance or would have had one years ago! (expectation of privacy laws) Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to sharing my drone adventures.

Thank you, John

Welcome to forum and a exciting avenue to explore.
You’ll receive a lot of great recommendations & shared experiences.

To get your feet wet, might experiment with MapsMadeEasy (MME) and use their free to low cost online processing. You can also collect your imagines with Pix4D and use MME to process. Try the onscreen measuring and volumetric tools too, useful to explore.

One product you might want to examine... iWitness Pro was originally developed for collision reconstruction. It broadened out to include mapping & 3D but retains a lot toward reconstruction. In comparison to others, it has a nice price structure too and moderate renewal.

Basically any terrain, 3D mapping will accomplish your task and many to examine. It’s a whole new discussion on terrain 3D programs and local vs cloud engines. Many out there to examine and several threads on sister forums.

I personally use Agisoft Metashape Pro (learning), but if I was to make a new major investment on 3D mapping it’d be SimActive Correlator3D. All just my opinion, and if funds no object... I’d Own several others.

Again, check out the sister forums... Inspire and Commercial Drone Pilots... good resources.

iWitnessPRO Applications - iWitness

iWitnessPRO is a close-range photogrammetry software system used in many fields and applications for image-based 3D mapping and diagramming.

iwitnessphoto.com

Agisoft Metashape: Agisoft Metashape

www.agisoft.com

SimActive | High-End Mapping Software

High-End Mapping Software | Rapid processing of imagery from drones, aircrafts and satellites. Start mapping today with Correlator3D.

www.simactive.com