[Rich Z]

Yeah, I've got a few smaller drones, but honestly haven't played with them for quite a while now. Was interested in working up to a larger more sophisticated unit at one time, but I put that way on the back burner after reading far too many accounts of people having a grand ($$) or more just fly away (return to China mode) or decide to drop into the middle of a lake without warning.

I would suspect that with the cheaper units that even with a camera, they won't have any sort of POV capability. Point of View means that you can see what the camera sees via the handset controller. Without that, you are basically just taking video at random and won't have any idea what you actually took video of till you got the drone back, pulled out the memory card, and then loaded it in a PC or equivalent to look. So my advice would be (if video is important to you) to make certain that the video the drone is recording, or just using the camera to see from the drone, gives you an image on your handheld controller. Many will utilize a smart phone of tablet for that function, but at least make sure you have that capability if you really want it. All of the small ones I bought could do POV video, but quality varied quite a bit among them.

I actually like the looks of the new DJI Mavic Pro that DJI recently came out with, but since it requires a smart phone for POV video, and I haven't yet bought into this smartphone stuff, it's not something I will be buying anytime real soon. GoPro came out with their own drone (Karma) recently, but from what I heard, they had to recall ALL of them because of a rash of failures and crashes. GoPro is new to this drone game, and most people said that they are about 3 generations behind the likes of DJI concerning drone technology. But I imagine competition is fierce in this new market, so improvements should come in leaps and bounds.

My advice would be to get the cheapest drone you can and practice with it. You WILL crash it, likely many times while working up the learning curve. There definitely IS a learning curve involved, and you need to become proficient enough that your reactions are quick and instinctive when things suddenly go wrong. Which when you are starting out, will happen a LOT. So take your lumps with something that won't hurt if you lose or crash it. Also practice outside where the drone can crash on something relatively soft like grass. One good crash to an asphalt parking lot, and you can pretty much figure on the drone going into the trashcan when you get home. At the very least, buy a few spare blades. You will need them.

Just about everyone sells drones these days, as the last time Connie and I went to the local mall, they were just about everywhere. So at the very least get one that has a money back guarantee in case you find it is not to your liking. The learning curve could wind up being too steep for you. I think if you have spent a lot of time playing on an Xbox or Playstation controller, this might come easier to you, since the control will be kind of similar.

Oh yeah, flight time on the cheap small drones will likely be pretty frustrating to you. A friend of mine bought one at Tractor Supply (see what I mean about them being everywhere?) but when he discovered that it only had a 5 minute flight time, he took it back. He said by the time he started getting the hang of it and getting the drone to even just sit still in one place, the battery was about dead, and he would have to land it. Then it took an hour or more to recharge the battery for another try, and that really took all the fun out of it for him.

Frankly the big hangup with me getting a higher dollar model is that my property just is not a good place to fly a drone. My property is heavily wooded with tall pine trees which seem to be magnetic to the drone. I was constantly fighting to keep the drone from heading into a tree. A few times I flew the drone high enough to clear the tree tops, but honestly those small drones can be very difficult to see when you get them up high. Then if it turns around on you, you can easily become disoriented such that it's easy to move the wrong control and quickly make things much worse. A few times, I actually thought I had seen the last of the drone when it went out of sight behind the tree line, but that is when POV saved the day by allowing me to actually SEE where it was pointed.

There are actually programs out there that are trainers for drones, and I would HIGHLY recommend that you buy one and play with that before even buying your own drone and putting it up into the air. I know they sell these things as toys, and maybe kids will take to them a lot quicker than us older folks will, but like I said, there is a definite learning curve involved with these things that you need to be aware of. Plan to use a lot of baby steps at first. Pretend that the drone WANTS to crash, and you have to stay on your guard to keep it from doing so.

BTW, my guess is that you would be able to find quite a few of the early generation DJI drones used for sale at really good prices, since probably people highly engaged with these things will upgrade quickly when new models come out. This might be the least expensive way to get into this hobby.

Good luck! If you have questions, I will try to help with my limited knowledge.