11 Drones for Pilots of All Budgets (and Skill Levels)

DJI is winning at drones. It makes the best stuff, and it keeps moving the whole industry forward. The latest example: [this $1,000 quadcopter](https://www.dji.com/mavic). It takes gorgeous 4K video, automatically avoids crashing, and can stay in the air almost a half-hour at a time. Afterwards, it folds up small enough to go in your jacket pocket. Seriously, your jacket pocket. This is flat-out the best drone on the planet right now.

Not everyone has a grand or more to spend on a flying camera. And even those who do should practice first on something a little less risky. [This medium-sized flier](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HM7CQ3W/) ($50) has one-touch controls for taking off and doing tricks, flies 10 minutes on a charge, and can take a serious beating. It's a perfect way to get comfortable in the skies.

Most drones come with their own camera of… debatable quality. [This one](https://carolinadronz.com/products/gdu) lets you swap out the camera, and even the gimbal, to get exactly the photos and video you want. There are gimbals that work with GoPro Hero cameras, and ones that can take larger Sony DSLRs. You can fly it with the controller or your phone, take off and land with exactly one tap, and generally take badass footage without having any idea what you're doing. $549

There's probably someone on your list for whom only the best, highest-end, most professional stuff will do. Get them the [Phantom 4 Pro](http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-3-professional) ($799), which is not only amazingly easy to fly but has one of the best cameras anyone's ever put on a drone. You can draw routes ahead of time to get exactly the shot you want, or just fly the thing willy-nilly and trust that the obstacle avoidance tech will do its job. (It will.)