DJI recently announced the DJI Dock 2 with some impressive improvements and quality of life changes over the Dock 1. The Matrice 3D series was also introduced, expanding the use cases of DJI's drone-in-a-box offering to the surveying world.
This post will cover the important changes and updates between the Matrice 3D and Matrice 30 series. To find out more about the DJI Dock 2, read our post.
Matrice 3D use cases enablement
The big improvement over the previous generation of DJI Dock is the addition of a mechanical shutter on the Matrice 3D. The mechanical shutter opens up the possibility for Dock 2 to be used for surveying-grade operations, something that was missing from the Dock 1 and Matrice 30 series.
Having a mechanical shutter is necessary to capture accurate images to use in mapping, surveying, and photogrammetry. Since the drone is moving and the subject is not, the electronic shutter introduces a jello effect or motion blur which results in distorted and less accurate images.
The mechanical shutter reduces this issue and makes accurate measurements to be taken from the image data captured by Matrice 3D. Some of the use cases that are now possible with the DJI Dock 2 and Matrice 3D include:
- Pit Calculations
- Mining Exploration
- Stockpile Monitoring
- Haulage Road Monitoring
- Tailings Dam Monitoring
DJI Matrice 3D series vs Matrice 30 series
The new Matrice 3D series has two variants, Matrice 3D and Matrice 3TD Focusing on the Matrice 3D, it features a wide camera with a 20MP 4/3 CMOS sensor with a mechanical shutter for surveying operations. It also has a telephoto camera with a 12MP 1/2-inch CMOS sensor for inspection operations.
The Matrice 3TD features a wide camera with a 48MP 1/1.32 inch CMOS sensor and the same telephoto camera as the Matrice 3D. Matrice 3TD also features a thermal camera with a 640x512 sensor with 28x digital zoom.
| DJI Matrice 3D | DJI Matrice 3TD | Matrice 30 | Matrice 30T | |
| Wide angle camera |
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| Telephoto camera |
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| Thermal camera | - |
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| Maximum flight time | 50 minutes | 50 minutes | 41 minutes | 41 minutes |
| Charging time (with Dock) | 32 minutes (20% to 90%) | 32 minutes (20% to 90%) | 25 minutes (10% to 90%) | 25 minutes (10% to 90%) |
| Maximum transmission distance | 10km | 10km | 7km | 7km |
