Take it from me. If you are a professional photographer that uses aerial (i.e., a real estate photographer or surveyor), run, don't walk, away from DJI drones. Their geozone program does not discern between hobbyists or recreational pilots, and professional pilots. You have a workflow that is designed to let you be efficient. DJI's onerous geozone feature will blow up your workflow and cost you business.

Last week I arrived on a job site that is located in Class B airspace, used my airmap app to request FAA permission, got it, then powered up my P4P. It would not take off. With great embarrassment, I had to excuse myself from the job site to try and find out why my drone wouldn't fly. That's when I discovered that DJI had snuck their geozone feature into my drone via a firmware update. They didn't even send me an email to warn me. Yeah.

Isn't this bizarre: not only to I have to ask my country's aviation authorities to fly, I now have to ask a damn company in China! But there's more. It's very difficult to ask DJI for permission to fly. Unlike the LAANC program where I can request FAA permission to fly while in the field in real time, the DJI path to permission is laden with land mines. If your drone controller uses a tablet that is wifi only, you're gonna have to find a way to get on the internet in the field. Then, even if you do get on the internet in the field (e.g., you bought a new iPad, or used your phone's wifi hot spot), you still can't fly. You'll get a cryptic message about account verification. When you go to the DJI web site to find out what that means, they'll tell you that you need to verify your DJI account with a phone number and/or a credit card. But they won't tell you how to do that. Even this forum can't tell you that, even though several DJI customers have asked. Get this: when I called DJI customer support from my job site, I was told that only the "fly safe" team handles issues with geozone -- and they don't have a phone line!! So you can forget about real-time support in the field.

If you are shopping around for a professional level drone for your photography business, do yourself a favor and do NOT purchase a DJI drone. There are other professional level drones that do not have flight restrictions. Besides, any company that will feature-regress a product you've bought and paid for, without your permission, is not to be trusted. And their sorry excuse for customer service proves it.

Hi there, we understand your frustration and are terribly sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused to your work, DJI is committed to helping maintain safe airspace for all our users and public, the GEO does not distinguish between hobbyists or recreational pilots, and professional pilots currently, and it was designed for all customers who can check the latest guidance on areas where flight may be limited due to safety concerns or regulations.
It is recommended to check the flight path in advance if you have important job to do to avoid unnecessary chaos. Unlocking low-risk zones requires just a few taps or clicks, only high-risk zones require users to submit particular credentials. At the moment, Fly Safe can only be contacted via email, we are sorry about this, your feedback will be reported to our management department for attention, we will keep improving our customer service to make you have a better experience in the future.