ok so ive been using a cheap little toy drone for about a year just to get the feel of things and i think im ready to actually spend some real money on something decent. my budget is probably $300-400 maybe a tiny bit more if theres a really good reason

mostly want to do landscape and travel photography, nothing crazy. i dont do any racing or fast action stuff. the main things i care about are decent camera quality, not being a nightmare to fly, and ideally something that wont get me in trouble legally since i know some drones have stricter registration requirements depending on weight

ive been looking at the DJI Mini 2 SE which seems like the obvious beginner pick but its a couple years old now and i keep seeing people say to just wait or save up more for the Mini 3. then theres the Holy Stone and Potensic stuff that shows up in my amazon results but im guessing those are not worth it? im open to non-DJI options if theres actually something good out there

any help would be really appreciated, ive spent like two weeks going down youtube rabbit holes and honestly feel more confused than when i started

the Holy Stone stuff is fine for learning to fly but the cameras on those are genuinely not comparable to even the older DJI budget options, so id ignore those for what you're trying to do. the Mini 2 SE is actually still a solid pick for the price especially if you catch it on sale, the camera isnt the newest but for landscape shots its more than capable and the 3-axis gimbal makes a huge difference over cheaper drones. the main thing you'd be giving up vs the Mini 3 is the vertical shooting mode and slightly better low light, which may or may not matter to you

if your budget can stretch to like $450-500 the refurbished Mini 3 from DJIs own store is worth looking at, ive seen it go pretty low. but honestly the Mini 2 SE at $300 is not a bad place to start at all, dont let people online make you feel like its somehow shameful to buy the older model

yeah two weeks of youtube will do that to you, i went through the same thing before my first purchase and eventually just picked something and stopped researching lol. one thing i'd add ? whatever you get, make sure you budget for a couple extra batteries too because one battery goes fast and youll be frustrated standing there waiting to charge before you can fly again. learned that one the hard way