Ultimate Drone Buying Guide for Total Beginners 2023

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 introduce your kids to drones and if they develop a problem like me they'll never be able to afford drugs so there's that positive I'm here to save you a lot of time because I own and operate all of these and I also do this for work number one advice the Drone Community has a ton of astronomers not a lot of astronauts there's a million people who have flown twice and start giving out advice on Facebook groups and forums you have to look at somebody's work before you take advice from them to make sure they don't suck and they know what they're talking about I do this for a living for work and everything you see is my footage but I also deal with beginners on a regular basis I mean I've been teaching this stuff to people since I was fat so I'm not going to give you the super snooty advice like oh you absolutely have to use the two thousand dollar drone otherwise it's just not worth it two really big bottom lines going into this the first there is no beginner drone I don't mean beginner like your first drone I mean the way you're imagining it to be an easy mode that has simpler buttons and settings and it's not as dangerous to fly AI That's not how any of these work this little teeny drone up here flies and behaves almost identically to this eight thousand dollar pterodactyl I have sitting up here so it's not like you have to start with the little drones and then earn your right to the more expensive ones there is a threshold though anything under 300 is going to be a toy it's going to be a rinky piece of crap plastic you fly it once you show your wife she doesn't really care the divorce draws near her you crash it into a tree and then just put it in a closet and never fly it again they have a million good reviews on Amazon of course and say like HD crystal clear but that super subjective language on the other toy extreme if you've seen a video of some guy in Hawaii diving off of a cliff or flying over lava doing flips and whatever that is an fpv drone stop watching this video right now and just search DJI Avada that's the cheapest barrier of Entry that's the least fuss and the most fun you're gonna have but that is a completely separate Avenue you'll crash a ton you'll hit trees and stuff because that's just a different lifestyle of a drone operator 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 we have the DJI Mini 2 the Mini 3 Pro this is probably the one you've heard the most about I have a long review on this one came out a year ago there is a slightly watered down version called the Mini 3 that's a little bit cheaper DJI air 2s DJI mavic 3 this is my favorite one DJI mavic 3 classic same as over here it's a slightly simpler version that's watered down but that means it's cheaper then this autel Evo light plus this is the at2020 mic terrible positioning I've barely gotten this thing to fly at all this is a nano plus I don't recommend that drone at all when you can get something way less buggy and better for the same price then I've got this this big thing up here the Inspire 2 is just here for fun to show you what it a really expensive drone that's used for like this I use for like broadcasts and network shoots but it's not realistic for the average person the whole thing comes apart it like disassembles way more complicated work I'm just putting it up here for fun 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 throw it in here to give you an idea of what a really expensive camera looks like all of my drones right here are DJI drones except for two that is because DJI is Market dominant they're the first to come out with new technology they're also the highest value so you get the most bang for buck they made this whole drone thing mainstream because they put all this technology in a drone that's available so cheap most people have these so you'll find the most discussion and advice about them online I don't really push autel because they're Hit or Miss it's either a working drone with a great picture or it's like whatever the heck this thing is that's not to say there aren't other brands of drones it's just these are by far leading the race the most capable 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 of these drones I'm dealing with are smarter drones they connect to satellites so they know where they are GPS then an app on your phone they can fly five miles away you'll still have a connection 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 of it 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 all of them have gimbled stabilized footage that handles wind really well even the very small one the beach is not even an issue with any of these drones the good news is there really isn't a brand that's charging like three times more for half the Drone so you won't really get ripped off anywhere if you're paying 800 bucks for a drone you'll get about 800 worth of drone if you can afford at least three hundred dollars you have such a massive leap in capability and what you can do with these drones and an entire career path you can follow this footage and these photos I'm showing you now are all done on a 350 drone the DJI mini 2. it is incredible that you can get this kind of quality when I paid thirteen hundred dollars 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 that is the closest you're gonna get to a really awesome toy that's fun to use but it's not like a flying computer like the rest of these drones 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 the app would tell you as well 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 but don't wait around to get a drone and be that guy who's posting on forums going hey should I wait for next year's model or the model after that you're going to be that guy forever and stop annoying everyone and just get a drone you can sell it later used or something if you want to upgrade and then you know what features you want even getting a used one off Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and if you can't afford a 300 one then get a job I don't know what to tell you I'm not your dad the cheapest drones the mini 2 and 3 only have Collision sensors on the bottom I've got a buddy who's crashed three of these things and since the last time I bullied him in a video he's crashed another so if you're an orphan drone up for adoption avoid this man at all costs but if you've played video game games your whole life you'll probably survive without them so don't let that hold you back from buying any drone at all and what's funny is that every one of these drones has a strength and a weakness like the Inspire 2 7 000 bucks films in cinema formats but it's so annoying you will never want to take it outside to film every guy within a mile in cargo pants and flip-flops is going to come running to ask you how high does it go how far does it go you can kill a bird you can kill a small child covering up for both of those gets exhausting I just don't think it's realistic for anybody but if you're getting a thousand dollars for a shoot from ESPN yeah it's worth it cool 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 it's just an easier experience and it's tons of fun and you do get really good quality still so it's okay if you have a little one I've heard from multiple partners and it matters more how you use it these are my children and I am their Khaleesi 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. and it's gonna 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 I teach a course on drone cinematography and editing I've said it a million times somebody using the smallest cheapest drone up here will blow somebody out the water who's using the most expensive one up here if they're just shooting in Auto and have no idea what they're doing you've all seen videos of a drone diving into a volcano doing flips and whatnot you remember that that was a GoPro strapped on top of a racing drone so you don't need the world's most expensive equipment you just need to use it the right way to cut to the chase the best drone out right now is the mavic 3 whether you get the super duper version I have here with two cameras on it one telephoto one and one short one or you just get the simpler watered down one I mean that price to be able to get this quality is just insane to me I already know what you're thinking can I get quality like this out the box can't I just film everything and sell it will Dad finally reach out to me and obviously the answer is no it's not that simple I just mean that it has the potential it will get you a lot closer than the other drones but you still need to know what conditions to look for like Sunset and how much Clarity you have settings like shutter speed frame rate but it can handle eighty percent of the situations that you would take the really big expensive drone on and get close enough quality that it makes it so much more convenient to have a foldable drone that fits in your Ninja Turtles lunchbox 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 this is the weight class that the Drone is in so when you're comparing drones quality wise this is kind of the bottom line right now everything right here is what I consider professional quality meaning it's good enough that you can sell this footage any of these qualified for making a town reel to make money with if you hear me talking about that you can get good footage with any of these drones up here but a mini 2 is never going to beat a mavic 3 if they are filming the same thing with the same settings 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 1 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 these gimbals are so good they can hold completely still for a full second and just soak in light any of the drones in the past five years can pretty much do this photography technology is light years ahead of video you have such a good time shopping for a drone all of these shoot raw format that's really the only only thing you need they're all super super capable 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 great 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 they 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 higher frame rates on other cameras are four slow motion footage I never need to slow my footage down Drone footage is so far away it's already slow the only thing I ever need to do is speed it up people online love obsessing over specs when a new drone is coming out and most of them don't even matter flight time I don't really care about is it over 25 minutes then I'm happy I never wind up using more than half a battery when I see a location I want to shoot there's a second battery charging in my car so I just swap them out in between somebody online decided to start 9 million arguments on the Range and why that's important I mean am I ever going to need to go 10 kilometers when do you need to fly six miles first what the heck are you planning when you need six miles of like what prison are you flying Skittles and cocaine to active track and follow me modes the Mini 3 Pro the air 2s and mavic 3s have it the Mini 3 does not have it most people use it once they never use it again you can still hit telephone wires so it's more like help but not perfect I never need it a huge reason this is the year you want to get into this stuff this smart remote these used to be really expensive and this thing has just changed the quality of life experience I Can't Describe to you removing the third variable your phone you don't have to like finagle the phone into this stupid little cradle and like Drop it while you're flying and stuff you won't get calls or texts you don't have to worry about phone battery it's so simple turn on the Drone turn on the controller Fly Away make a million dollars your dandruff is cured all DJI drones going forward have the Smart Remote the same one that they're all compatible with Time Saver stress saver this used to very expensive to have to get a smart remote with it I fly a ton for work already and being a tester and I still find time to go shoot a sunset or pull over and take off quickly because of how much fun is put back in my life so if it were any more human shaped I would be in a committed relationship with this remote 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 a Mini 3 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 or if you can afford it the mavic 3 most people are getting one of these three 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 mavic 3 does 5.1 K Max that's handy if you're editing and you want to crop in on the footage some otherwise it's not a big deal you wouldn't notice the Mini 3 Pro is just barely small enough that you won't notice it's with you the mavic 3 is big enough to be annoying if you have to carry it around with you in town in a backpack or on a hike 150 extra with any of these and you get the smart remote because they're all compatible any of these take phenomenal photos but you can only do a hyperlapse with a Mini 3 Pro or the mavic 3. it won't look this good because I have some editing tricks for this but still the biggest difference in the smaller mini is there is no Collision sensors on the front and back most people are okay though if you've played video games you'll be fine I haven't even mentioned yet but with the mini threes one really cool feature is that the camera will turn sideways so you can film full 4K 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 notice I'm not pushing the air 2s it has features from the biggest drone and the smallest drone but not the coolest parts of either the picture profile is also really weird sometimes sometimes it's great if your bottom line is quality and you need this to be the best and you have paying clients just get the mavic 3 you are gonna love it in videography World once every seven years you get a product that performs so well it feels like you're cheating trust me professionals love this thing I have sold footage multiple times to networks and almost Disney but they change their mind last second and that is using drones that were nowhere near as capable as what this thing can do I'm not talking about making money here though I have other videos for that if your bottom line is experience and getting ready to do pro stuff get one of the mini threes then if you're on the fence about the Mini 3 versus the Mini 3 Pro just get the mini 3 Pro the Mini 3 is really for someone who's like just get me a drone that does a great job I'm not going to think too hard about it the Mini 3 Pro is for the person who's been researching this a billion times comparing who really wants a drone that can do a lot and they won't outgrow it for a long time because of those extra Pro features that you can learn and experiment with I've shown you plenty from the mini 2 and if you're taking a step down to get that one don't let somebody tell you you have to be an absolute expert at something to enjoy it it's a hobby if you're getting plenty out of a mini 2 or a Mini 3 that's enough for you and you'll keep learning and growing 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 in film you have to know what you're going to film conditions are a big deal and 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 when you hear me talk about not outgrowing your drone 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 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 foreign [Music]

Channel: QuickAssTutorials

Views: 454,090

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, drones side by side, drone tutorials, drone course, ultimate drone buying guide, best cheap drones, best drones for beginners, total beginner drones, DJI mini 3, Dji mini 3 vs, Autel vs DJI, Best Camera Drone, Best video drone, cheap video drone, amazon drone, best drones 2023, best drones 2022, alex harris

Id: QThFesaR1Vw

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 04 2023