What’s the best drone for small business marketing?

Next up in our “Ask Drone Girl” series is about drones for small business marketing content. If you have a question for Drone Girl, contact her here.

I own a permanent commercial/residential roofline lighting and landscape lighting design business. After installations we would hire a drone videography company, however the one we use basically charged us but never delivered our content. We are considering purchasing our own drone for high quality video content for our website and social media. I’m between the DJI Air 3 and the DJI Mini 4 Pro — any recommendations?

Um, my question for you is, what is that drone videography company?! That’s not okay at all! Note to all drone videography companies: please deliver on your promises and don’t make the industry look bad.

ANYWAY, I’ll move past that and at least look for the silver lining here, which is that buying your own drone and learning to shoot it yourself is often a better long-term solution for owners of small businesses like yours anyway. You’ll have way more creative control, you can shoot any time you want and you won’t be at the mercy of someone else’s reliability.

High quality camera drones are getting cheaper and cheaper, so — assuming you have an interesting in flying and taking photos — it’s not a massive investment the way it was a decade ago.

Good news: both drones you’re considering are excellent choices, and you really can’t go wrong with either.

The DJI Mini 4 Pro. (Photo by Caroline Dobrez)

The DJI Mini 4 Pro is probably the right call for most small business owners in your situation. At 249 grams, it’s under the FAA registration threshold for recreational use, it’s highly portable, and the camera quality — 4K/60fps, 48MP stills, 1/1.3-inch sensor, omnidirectional obstacle avoidance — is excellent for social media and website content. For roofline lighting installations, which are inherently close-range and often in residential neighborhoods, the Mini 4 Pro’s compact size and obstacle avoidance will give you more confidence flying around structures and trees.

The DJI Air 3S has about 45 minutes of flight time. (Photo by Hamilton Nguyen)

The DJI Air 3 steps it up with a dual-camera system — a wide-angle camera plus a 3x medium tele — which gives you more creative versatility and is particularly useful if you want to get detailed close-up shots of your lighting installations without physically flying the drone closer to a structure. The image quality is noticeably better in low-light situations too, which matters a lot for roofline and landscape lighting content since your best shots will happen at dusk and after dark when the lights are actually on and visible.

That low-light consideration might actually be the deciding factor for your specific use case. Lighting installations look their best at night. The Air 3’s larger sensor and dual-camera system will handle those dusk and evening shots better than the Mini 4 Pro.

One more note that you may already be aware of: Since you’re shooting for your business — website, marketing, social media for a commercial operation — that counts as commercial drone use under FAA rules, which means you need a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate to fly legally.

To get one, you must pass a written exam, which you must take in-person at an FAA-approved testing center. It’s not difficult to pass, but I really only say that IF you go through an online study course first. I’d suggest using Drone Pilot Ground School. Using this link can get you $100 off.

My recommendation: if budget is a consideration, start with the Mini 4 Pro — it’ll produce beautiful content and the portability is genuinely useful. If you want to invest in the best possible image quality for those crucial evening and dusk shots of your lighting work, step up to the Air 3. Either way, you’ll end up with content that’s far better than whatever that videography company would have delivered.

Happy flying — and happy lighting!

Sally The Drone Girl

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