ok so ive been watching youtube videos about drones for like 3 months now and i still cant figure out what to actually buy. every video recommends something different and half of them are probably sponsored anyway. my budget is somewhere around 300 maybe a little more if its worth it. i dont really have a specific thing i want to do with it, just fly around and maybe take some decent video? i live in a suburb so its not like i have huge open fields nearby but theres a park about 10 minutes away. do i need to register it or anything? also someone told me i should start with a cheap toy first to learn on but i dont know if thats actually good advice or just something people say

the mini 3 is probably where most people land when they ask this question and honestly its hard to argue with it. yeah its dji and yeah everyone says dji but theres a reason for that. the obstacle avoidance on it is good enough that you wont bin it into a tree on your second flight, the video quality is way beyond what youd expect for the price, and the controller experience is just smooth in a way that cheaper stuff isnt. registration-wise in the US anything under 250g doesnt need FAA registration for recreational flying which is why the mini line is so popular, the mini 3 hits right under that limit. as for the toy drone thing, i get why people say it but honestly i think it just delays the learning. you end up learning bad habits on something that flies nothing like a real GPS-stabilized drone and then you have to unlearn all of it anyway

i was in literally the same spot like 8 months ago lol. i ended up getting a holy stone hs720 because it was cheaper and i was scared to spend real money on something i might crash. honestly? kinda regret it now. the footage is meh and it drifts around a lot in any wind at all. i still have fun with it but im already looking at the mini 3 or maybe the mini 4 pro. if i had to do it again id probably just save up a bit more and go straight for the dji. also yes you probably need to register depending on where you are, i had no idea about that either when i started