ok so ive been watching youtube videos about drones for like the past month and now i want to actually buy one but theres so many options i dont even know where to start. my budget is probably like 200-300 dollars maybe a little more if something is really worth it. i dont have any experience flying anything like this, not even RC cars or whatever. i mostly want to just fly around outside and maybe take some decent video, nothing crazy professional. people keep mentioning DJI but then other people say theres cheaper stuff thats fine for a beginner. i dont want to crash an expensive thing right away lol. so yeah what would you guys actually get if you were starting completely from scratch

honestly the mini 2 SE or just the regular mini 2 is probably what most people here would point you to if you're set on DJI. it's small enough that you dont need to register it in a lot of places (check your local rules though, that varies), and it actually flies really well in moderate wind which cheaper stuff just cant handle. i started on some random amazon drone and wasted like 150 bucks before just biting the bullet on a real one. that said if 300 is really your ceiling look at the Holy Stone HS720 or something in that range, it wont have great wind resistance but it'll get you flying and help you figure out if this hobby is even for you before spending more

im basically in the same boat as you lol, i ended up getting the DJI mini 2 SE about two months ago and its been pretty good. took me a few sessions to stop being nervous about it but the obstacle avoidance stuff helped a lot mentally even if it doesnt have it on all sides. video quality is honestly way better than i expected for casual stuff. only thing i'll say is budget a little extra for extra batteries because one battery doesnt last very long at all, like 20-25 minutes if youre lucky