so my brother got me into this whole drone thing and now im actually considering buying one but i have no idea where to start. ive been watching youtube videos for like two weeks and everyone recommends something different and honestly it's making it worse not better.

my budget is probably around 200-300 dollars, maybe a little more if it's worth it. i dont really have a specific thing i want to do with it, just kind of fly around, maybe take some photos or video of like hikes and stuff. nothing crazy professional.

do i need to worry about registering it with the faa right away? and is there like one drone that everyone agrees is just the obvious starting point or is it really that spread out in terms of recommendations

honestly the mini 3 is probably where most people land when they ask this exact question. its under 250 grams so you skip the faa registration thing which is genuinely nice when youre just starting out and dont want to deal with paperwork before you even know if you like flying. the camera is way better than anything else in that price range too.

that said if 300 is your hard ceiling you might be looking at the mini 2 SE instead which is a little older but still totally solid. ive seen them go on sale pretty regularly. either way i'd stay in the dji ecosystem for a first drone just because the software is mature and there's so much help available when you inevitably have questions.

the registration thing ? yeah if it's under 250g you're fine without it for recreational flying. anything heavier and you need to register, its like 5 bucks and takes ten minutes so its not a huge deal either way.

dont overthink it too much, almost everyone i know started with something cheap and broke it and then bought a real one anyway lol. theres an argument for getting a tiny whoop or something super cheap indoors first just so crashing doesnt feel catastrophic, but if you already know you want outdoor stuff and aerial video then yeah just go dji mini something and learn on that. the stabilization on those things is so good now that you'll get decent shots way faster than learning on anything else.