I am a huge fan of Pix4D. We use it extensively for HQ aerial photos and generating surfaces and contours, It produces an orthomosaic that we can import with the world file into Civil3D and TraversePC with perfect alignment to our field observed data. The photo quality is excellent. It does some point classification but struggles with small bushes, mail boxes, stop signs, etc. The editing tools allow enough cleanup to make it usable. I am still searching for better cleanup tools for the point cloud. It produces very nice contour lines if the data is clean. We have done topos by hand to compare and the alignment between surveys was great. The ground control tools are pretty easy to use.
Like all software, the learning curve is time consuming but projects are going pretty well when we have worked out a workflow plan. It takes quite a bit of processing time on my HP Z600 with dual Xeon processors. A typical 400 photo project will take 30 minutes to register and get the GCP aligned. Then it will take 6-8 hours to generate the point cloud, orthomosaic, 3dmesh, and contours. Then you will need cleanup time and the contours have to be regenerated (2 hours). Actual operator time is about an hour.
The Pix4d Capture app for DJI products is getting better but has a ways to go. It only does rectangular projects on one battery. I use Map Pilot from mapsmadeeasy for irregular and large projects requiring more batteries. Both are ridiculously easy to use. The entire flight is automatic.
Like all software, the learning curve is time consuming but projects are going pretty well when we have worked out a workflow plan. It takes quite a bit of processing time on my HP Z600 with dual Xeon processors. A typical 400 photo project will take 30 minutes to register and get the GCP aligned. Then it will take 6-8 hours to generate the point cloud, orthomosaic, 3dmesh, and contours. Then you will need cleanup time and the contours have to be regenerated (2 hours). Actual operator time is about an hour.
The Pix4d Capture app for DJI products is getting better but has a ways to go. It only does rectangular projects on one battery. I use Map Pilot from mapsmadeeasy for irregular and large projects requiring more batteries. Both are ridiculously easy to use. The entire flight is automatic.