Ultimate Drone Buying Guide for Total Beginners 2022

holy cow so many drones out there do you need a beginner drone how much do i need to spend what's the price difference really which drone works for me obviously i have a problem so i'm here to help you save a lot of time number one advice the drone community has a lot of astronomers not a lot of astronauts you have to see somebody's stuff before you take advice from them there are too many people that have flown twice and start giving advice like an expert telling other people what to do on forums and facebook groups there's a big difference when you're actually using all of these and not when you're just looking at the spec sheet on the sales page i do this for a living but more importantly i deal with beginners on a regular basis so i'm not going to give you the really snooty advice that you won't get the best footage unless you pay 2 000 for the most premium drone two really big bottom lines you need to know going into this the first there really is no beginner drone i don't mean beginner is in your first drone i mean beginner as in the way you imagine it to be an easy mode like there's a starter drone where has user friendly settings and doesn't have difficult camera options when you're trying to film anything under 300 is going to be a toy it's going to be a wrinkly piece of crap plastic you fly it once you show your wife she doesn't really care the divorce draws nearer you crash it into a tree and then just put it in the closet and never fly it again not because it's broken it's just not fun basically all of these drones behave almost identically this eight thousand dollar monster inspire that films basically for movies and network stuff flies nearly identically to the mini 2 up here this teeny little 400 drone it's not like you work your way up from the little ones to the bigger ones once you earn the right because they're more complicated they're all really simple really user friendly the second bottom line as far as popular drones go right now there are two different types photo and video focused drones that fly steady and smooth and fpv drones first person view those go like 100 miles an hour if you want to do flips and spins and you saw a really cool instagram reel video of a guy flying through the mountains it's a racing drone you fly with goggles you have to know how to work with these electronic these little chipboards and radio frequencies and stuff it's way more complicated totally different avenue it's nothing like the experience you get with these drones today we're talking about regular photo and video drones you fly these with an app on your phone connected to a remote they have stabilized cameras that take photos and videos and save that to a memory card that is their one focus and this is what i have sitting in front of me on the table these drones increase in price and quality from left to right and the biggest reason for the price difference in these drones is photo and video quality so here we have the dji mini 2 the dji mini 3 pro this one just came out it's the most recent you probably hear people talking about it the dji air 2s is a little bit more expensive and a little bit more capable the autel evo nano plus which i'll talk about that one in a second the dji mavic 3 is for hardcore professionals there are also these two drones the dji mavic 2 pro this was the best run you could get on the market up until like a year ago now it's kind of older it came out in 2018 so i'm not recommending it over one of the newer ones same with this it's an autel evo2 pro 6k it gets a great picture doesn't fly as well as a dji drone but it's an older drone so again it's here if you can get one used for a really good deal these are both good options but otherwise i don't suggest them anymore this is the at2020 mic terrible positioning i've barely gotten this thing to fly at all the inspire 2 is honestly just up here for fun it's such a goliath that it's like such a pain in the butt to deal with fantastic footage you can swap the lenses on it it's like a flying system you buy the camera and the drone body separately and you can disconnect this to upgrade the camera later you can swap the lenses out it's for a film guy you know it's not a casual experience at all and it's honestly like flying a small helicopter everybody looks because i have all of these i want to paint a really fast picture for you to give you an idea of the kind of quality you can get for each of these price points while you're watching this if you can't see a huge difference between each of these cameras then you are in a very good spot it doesn't mean you're not an expert it means that buying a drone is going to be way easier for you some people need this for work or for clients so they need those extreme details to be perfect otherwise if you think all of this just looks like good 4k footage then you're gonna have a ton of fun no matter which one of these you pick remember i have a background in video production and camera operating i'm also using a variety of angles and framing and lighting conditions to get good shots i'm also fixing any color issues in the editing the inspire is in here just for fun honestly it's for like filming movies but i threw it in here to give you an idea of what a really expensive camera looks like all my drones right here are dji drones for the most part except for two that is because dji is market dominant they just have the newest technology they're the first ones out the door with a new feature they update the firmware regularly to fix any bugs and they're usually the newest out with better technology they kind of made this whole drone scene like a mainstream thing there are other brands like parrot or skydio but i don't have a reason to switch from dji because they are at the top of their game that's not to say you can't get good footage with those drones i just know dollar value wise it's not the same thing some of them have last year's technology but they sell a really good feature like tracking that's what skydio does and later on i will address where they sit in the range of quality if you're looking at one of those all these drones again they are smarter drones they connect to a controller then an app on your phone they can fly five miles away you'll still have a connection they know where they are because they connect to satellites through gps when you turn them on they just hover they have sensors to not crash into things they warn you if anything is wrong the battery is low they won't take off if it's somewhere super illegal like an airport they'll record the location that take off and fly back to you before the battery runs out automatically or if there's an issue like the phone or the controller died they will remember where they were and then just fly home after like a minute without getting a signal from you so that is the very good news if you can afford at least 300 you have such a massive leap in capability and an entire career path and what you can do with these drones all the footage and the photos that i'm showing you right now are done on a 400 drone the dji mini 2. it is incredible that you can get this kind of quality when i paid 1300 just a couple of years ago in 2017 and it was a much much lower quality but people were still paying for it so yeah drone technology is moving at lightning speed this is a very very good time to get into drones if you refuse to spend that much stop watching this video and go and buy a holly stone drone on amazon this is the closest you're going to get to an awesome toy that's really fun to use but it's not going to be like all of these other drones which are like flying computers one cool thing is that used drones are definitely a thing i've bought used drones and it's been fine it's very obvious when something is wrong with the drone you would know right away people sell these things all the time because they always want the newest one so yeah buying a used drone is a totally okay thing to do then there's this drone the autel evo nano plus it's in a weird spot because they created this thing to trump the mini 2 it had like bold new features bold new specs better low light but then dji for less money came out with the mini 3 pro and you get so much more from it they asked me to review this drone it put me in a really awkward spot because i want to have something good to say about this drone but the experience has been so buggy and honestly horrible i do like that there's different colors of this drone autel also gives you the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets for some reason but the second you try to aim or turn or automate it just isn't the same and for every other time you're filming the picture just doesn't compare to a mini 3 pro the app is crashing on me all the time i change features and it just goes no thank you and switches back so at this point i can't recommend it to anybody it's up here because i know people will ask about it but for the price i can't honestly say that you should go buy it especially not spending that much money it's really exciting right now because there are newer more powerful drones coming out every year but don't be that person waiting around until next year's model because you're gonna one annoy me because i get that question constantly two when the next one comes out you'll be doing the same thing should i wait for next year's model or should i wait for the model after that you're gonna be that person forever just stop annoying everyone and get a drone now you can sell it later used or something if you want to upgrade just worry about the rest of that when you know more about drones and what's funny is that every one of these drones has a strength and a weakness like the inspire 2 8000 bucks films in cinema formats but it's so annoying you will never want to take it outside at all they say the best camera is the one you have with you that is the case with the teeny drones because they're so much fun and so discreet and easy to use they don't draw a crowd or anything 15 million people don't come ask you how fast and how far it goes it's just an easier experience and it's tons of fun and you do get really good quality still if you've never been around a drone at all it's a lot louder than you think and it's pretty scary the first time you take off if you can if i can take off and you're still listening to me talk while i'm doing this then relatively speaking compared to other drones which are like way louder this is doing a really good job so i'm i mean this thing's closer to the mic than i am and if you can still hear what i'm saying it's i just noticed that it's quieter so i'm also going to do the mavic 3. it is going to be i have to yell a little bit more it's not the end of the world i have to project a lot more i'm also going to do the inspire so you have an idea i enjoy the sound from the mini 3 a lot more than the other drones another good thing is that there isn't really an apple right now where you pay three times the price for the same machinery and you get the same quality as you would for less money somewhere else so again perfect time to get into drones because of how much you can get now i teach a course on cinematography and editing for drones trust me when i say you will get better footage with the cheapest drone here if you apply filming principles like cinematic settings angles and conditions than you would with the expensive one if you were just shooting in auto and pointing at the earth to cut to the chase the best drone out right now is the mavic 3 it's just that it's twenty three hundred dollars to get that mavic 3 so there's quite a big jump in price if you want to be able to get that quality and yes although it will get you very close you can't just point and shoot you do need to know the settings for being foldable and as convenient as it is it can still fit inside a ninja turtles lunchbox while being basically 90 of what you would get with the really huge inspire 2. the footage is also very flexible when i want to do color grading and editing and that's a really big deal so what is happening in this drone to make the picture so much better the number one most important way to improve image quality is to have a bigger sensor this is also the reason people pay more for more expensive drones something that dji is not making clear or anybody that's selling drones for that matter all of these are using almost the exact same equipment a 1 over 2.3 inch sensor drones on this list and this price range right here are what i consider the entry point for professional work most of these are old though so don't go buy these except for the mini 2. the differences in price is just preferences and bells and whistles but really when it comes down to it they're pretty much almost all the same thing you only improve in quality when you increase the sensor size over to a mavic 2 pro and the phantom 4 pro which use larger sensors and that puts them in a different weight class the mini 3 pro is a little more than a halfway point that's why it's a big deal because it's an improvement over the sensor size still a tiny drone though this is where the mavic 3 comes into play it's kind of closer to the inspire and it's a halfway point between prosumer drones but not quite as serious and huge and annoying as the inspire 2. the biggest difference in a larger sensor is dynamic range that's being able to see bright brights and dark shadows at the same time so if you decided to splurge and just go buy an expensive drone with a bigger sensor this is the first thing you would notice filming a sunset would have way more visible clouds and shadows underneath waves on the beach at the same time so lighting extremes you can see now why sometimes professionals need to get this kind of footage if you're just filming your kids at the beach maybe you can't get the shot whatever but if you're being paid to do it you need to be able to pull that off the second biggest thing you would notice is low light footage if you want to film after sunset you can't use a drone with a one over 2.3 inch sensor one of those old ones it has to be bigger than that it's okay though because most people don't need to do this and good news in photography world this doesn't even matter you can still do long exposure photos with an old drone and they will be phenomenal photo technology is way ahead of video technology on any of these drones in the past five years you notice in old cameras the footage looks like it's wafer thin it's like there's this film over the footage it kind of makes it all one color a bigger sensor means a bigger range of colors deep reddish gold gray blues rich browns instead of just red yellow white where does resolution come into play you notice i haven't brought this up it almost doesn't matter since all of these drones can give you at least 4k footage we're at a point now where it doesn't matter if the drone gives you 6k or 4k i would take the one with the bigger sensor either way this is a sales point because the average shopper loves the sound of 6k and 8k that's why they hype it up lord of the rings wasn't filmed in ak and we're still watching it if it's going on social media it's gonna get dumbed down so much anyways it won't be half the quality of that so don't stress same thing with frames per second 60 or 120 frames per second it doesn't matter the cinematic look is 24 frames a second and all of them do that at a minimum i never need to slow my footage down that's what the higher frame rates are for slow motion footage drone footage is so far away it's already slow the only thing i ever need to do is speed it up you need to be a big kid and make a decision are you doing this for fun you are going to have the time of your life with the mini 2. are you doing this for work you want to make money or you're just rich and you want all the cool fun features you need to be looking at one of these drones which are more serious the mini 3 pro the most recent drone or the air 2s most people are getting one of these three drones i've shown you plenty from the mini and the mini 2. if that's the drone you're getting then don't feel bad don't let people tell you you have to be an absolute expert at something in order to enjoy it it's a hobby you don't need to obsess over equipment have the very best thing if the mini 2 is doing it for you and you're getting by completely fine then to be happy you don't have to spend more and you're getting enough with the mini 2. and then there's the other two drones the difference is that the mini 3 pro has a smaller sensor it won't be as good in low light it also films 4k max the air 2s does 5.4k max and that's handy if you want to be able to crop in on your videos some in the editing otherwise it's not important so don't stress both of these do phenomenal photos and you can do a hyperlapse with either of these it won't look this good because i have some editing tricks for this but still these drones have collision sensors so you won't crash into things it will stop you the mini 2 sadly only had these on the bottom the air 2s is just barely large enough to be annoying to carry around on a hike or in town the mini 3 pro is just barely small enough that you won't notice it's with you you also have a 900 option to get this with a smart controller that way you don't have to use your phone at all and this isn't necessary but it is really nice and it's so much less hassle having this thing the air 2s doesn't have a smart controller option really cool feature is that the camera will turn sideways so you can film full 4k but vertically which is great if you're a content creator because this saves so much time if your stuff is going on instagram or tick tock or something that's a really cool feature to have if your bottom line is quality get the air 2s you will love it to put this in perspective i have sold footage multiple times to networks and almost disney but they decided they didn't need it last second and that was using a drone that has equal specs to this and that was only two years ago i'm not talking about making money here though i have other videos for that if your bottom line is the experience please get the mini 3 pro you will also love it dji sent me this drone early to review so i've had a long time to test it thoroughly i love this thing it's also very quiet so if you're anxious about loud buzzy drones this will be less stressful no matter what nothing beats going somewhere filming it from a newer perspective and the footage coming out better than the feeling of what it was like when you were there that's a common frustration with cell phones you take a picture and it doesn't match the feeling something about a larger sensor just looks way more like you're there way more realistic and less like a cell phone filmed it with these drones or anything larger it qualifies you for professional work you can sell this footage but you can't just turn it on and film you have to know what you're going to film conditions are a big deal in the cinematography section of the course you always hear me complain about making sure you don't just pick a day you try and get a day with a lot of visibility this kind of drone will show a dramatic difference in the environment during a sunset or when it's morning time you also have enough data in the footage that you have room to work with when you're color grading so you can fix errors and make it look a lot nicer that's a lot of work and it takes some knowing what to look for so for a beginner you would probably just shoot a normal profile but most of my footage is using normal profile to show that off and it still looks really really good you will not outgrow these drones for a long time that means it's going to take a long enough time to learn so much about cinematography editing lighting stuff like that that your drone is what is holding you back for a beginner it's great even if you were filming just with default normal settings and then when you're good enough to learn how to shoot flatter and color grade your footage you will get phenomenal stuff with this color grading will take it a long way but that's for later from my perspective being able to use the features as marketing points and if you win one extra job just because of the difference in quality you're pretty much already there towards paying off the difference and that makes it an obvious choice i have a course for all this stuff i'll link it in the description otherwise i don't know what else to tell you um get a few shots in mind before you get your drone though because a lot of people buy one fly it straight in the air and then don't have anything in mind so their footage looks bad and then they give up you have to have a plan before you take off once you look at your footage afterwards and you get that good feeling that everything came out better than expected it gets very very addictive [Music]

Channel: QuickAssTutorials

Views: 1,097,927

Keywords: best beginner drone, best beginner drones, best drone, dji mavic 3, best budget drones, best budget drone, drone video, drone launch academy, aerial video a to z, best drones 2021, drones side by side, drone tutorials, drone course, ultimate drone buying guide, best drones 2022, best cheap drones, best drones for beginners, total beginner drones, best dji drone

Id: 9Xje3cqnG-Q

Length: 16min 49sec (1009 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/softwhiteclouds]

This guy makes great videos!

[u/Marko2008x]

What a fantastic video.

[u/grantthegreat]

Excellent content! I will share this with the peeps I know who are interested in getting into Drone work. Curious what his thoughts are on the P4P, though. IMO that is still the most versatile drone (Apart from the Mavic 3 Enterprise) on the market.

[u/raven1121]

I watched his videos and what really sold me on the mini 3 pro was when he was doing the noise test , wow that inspire really does sound like a helicopter taking off