Last weekend I got to finally see a Matrice 30T and compare it to our Matrice 300 RTK. Our PD just got the aircraft and it was out for its maiden flights. We were conducting overwatch for a weekend concert series and there were some interesting notes.
This was not an official comparison as it was during live missions, it was more just comparing what I saw from each aircraft.
We were using the for now free DJI Flight Hub 2 Beta as well as Live Streaming through a capture card and Zoom back to a command post.
Flight Hub 2 needs some work in that its Live Streaming works great when there is high bandwidth available, but when taxed by large numbers of people such as a concert competing on the nearest cell tower it had connection issues that would constantly have network drops. And this was using AT&T First Net with a compatible First Net Band 14 router. From the same router Zoom was able to keep a Live Stream going without buffering for almost the whole concert while Flight Hub 2 would get disconnects rather frequently. I will be sure to give feedback to Flight Hub 2 as DJI is asking for this since it is in Beta.
Without doing a side by side comparison this is only initial observations between the two flagship Enterprise aircraft.
Overall I cannot see one of these tools being better than the other. There are too many variables and pros and cons. You must pick one based on your needs and budget. If we had neither in our city and we had the money, I would get the 300 RTK, but if we did not have the budget for the 300 RTK, I would in no way be upset with a M30T.
I will follow up hopefully with some side by side images from both.
This was not an official comparison as it was during live missions, it was more just comparing what I saw from each aircraft.
We were using the for now free DJI Flight Hub 2 Beta as well as Live Streaming through a capture card and Zoom back to a command post.
Flight Hub 2 needs some work in that its Live Streaming works great when there is high bandwidth available, but when taxed by large numbers of people such as a concert competing on the nearest cell tower it had connection issues that would constantly have network drops. And this was using AT&T First Net with a compatible First Net Band 14 router. From the same router Zoom was able to keep a Live Stream going without buffering for almost the whole concert while Flight Hub 2 would get disconnects rather frequently. I will be sure to give feedback to Flight Hub 2 as DJI is asking for this since it is in Beta.
Without doing a side by side comparison this is only initial observations between the two flagship Enterprise aircraft.
- Of course setup time is not comparable. The M30T can be deployed as fast as a Mavic 2, while I am still attaching legs and payloads on the 300 RTK
- Both aircraft look impressive (For those who judge a book by its cover) and add a wow factor to any program (Not my criteria) but they did attract comments, questions and concerns from concert goers.
- I did not get a chance to use RTK on the M30T, but the 300 RTK was easily able to connect to a Custom NTRIP network I setup using an Emlid Reach RS2 on a high quality NGS monument. (Monument used in Hybrid Geoid 18 to constrain the monument to the geoid's gravimetric data)
- The zoom on the M30T is almost as good as the Matrice 300 RTK, but the 300 RTK is a much cleaner, clearer picture when zoomed in at max and near max (200Xs) levels
- The M30T had better battery times and can consistently be over 30 minutes flight time (conditions limiting)
- Both drones are easy to see and allow you to have VLOS more easily than say a Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
- The thermal image met my expectations in that it is a wider FOV better suited for Public Safety. Even with the same 640x512 resolution, things on the M30T looked smaller. (This is just a lens effect, you would still have the same number of pixels on target when obtaining a temperature)
- This effect was highlighted when we were trying to use the thermal to spot the other drone from several hundred feet away. Both drones can easily "spot" the other drone with the thermal sensor, but the M30T's wide FOV made the Matrice 300 RTK look like a tiny speck, while the 300 RTK was far easier to find the small target. For finding people this would not matter, but for inspections operators should note that in my opinion the thermal is setup to Public Safety a tad bit more than for inspections.
- Both aircraft integrated into Flight Hub 2 seamlessly and we even let the 300 RTK produce a "live map" session. The map was created using the Wide camera and is a nice way to overlay a map of a current area that all invited members can see. In terms of maps though, the map is very low quality and the elevation's do not resemble anything near accurate. They were off by 15 meters. I tested an Anafi Thermal just using the onboard inaccurate GPS and it was able to 0.33 meters inaccuracy in elevation. And this effect is not just the "fast stitching" of Flight Hub 2's photogrammetry software (Most Likely Terra). I mapped a project with the 300 RTK and used Agisoft Metashape to process and it was also off in elevations in double digits.
- I want to now generate some maps with the M30T and see if it can beat the 300 RTK's abysmal performance. (I know that it is stated they are not for mapping, but the 300 RTK's performance is by far the worst of any drone I have ever used to make a map.
- In high winds both are rock solid. The M30T only flew for one night and it was only slightly windy, but it was rock solid. The 300 RTK has been flown in winds up to 45 mph and was absolutely rock solid.
- The range finder on both seem accurate, more testing is needed
- The M30T really shine with the FPV camera and the ability to see in close to near darkness.
- Both aircraft offer excellent images and video
- I did not test the Grid photo on the M30T, but on the 300 RTK it produced very nice "stitched" panoramas. These images seem like they are from a much better sensor than the normal images
- I did not test the 360 Panorama on the 30T but the 300 RTK performed about the same as my other DJI products. The overall result was okay with 1 image slightly improperly stitched.
Overall I cannot see one of these tools being better than the other. There are too many variables and pros and cons. You must pick one based on your needs and budget. If we had neither in our city and we had the money, I would get the 300 RTK, but if we did not have the budget for the 300 RTK, I would in no way be upset with a M30T.
I will follow up hopefully with some side by side images from both.