Hiya Ron. In general there are two different flight modes on most standard transmitters, called mode 1 and mode 2. In most cases you can modify the transmitters or request them be one mode or the other and I believe mode 2 is the default in the US if you don't ask otherwise. Can see some explanation of what is controlled by which stick with each mode here:
http://www.spektrumrc.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2105
For people who build their own quad we can configure the settings to map the controls from any input to any value we want really but most people still just stick with mode 2 setup.
Anyhow long story short they are mostly the same, with DJI or other GPS enabled drones you're likely to have extra buttons or control through an app to do the 'go to home' or 'set waypoints' type features but the transmitter/joystick will essentially act the same for manual control.
I would suggest getting some sort of small cheap option you can even pick up ones without a camera or anything for like $20-30 at a local big box store or from the Amazon and just get the basic gist of how the thing flies and what the controls do without sinking a lot of money into it right away or worrying much about the purchase. This will obviously not be a long term thing expect it to break in a week but at least will give you a feel for what does what... only down side I see with this is the tiny cheap ones aren't going to have anything near the sensor capability (ultrasound, GPS, barometer, gyro etc.) that a more premium product will have so you can expect the cheap option will be much more wily than a fully sensor packed professional product.
You can also find lots of free demos of simulators that you can try a few quads on a few different levels, velocidrone is one, or "fpv freerider", or "lift off", lots of them out there. I personally use velocidrone and it helped me a lot with learning to fly acrobatic mode but if your goal is just to have a really nice camera on a gimbal in the sky then you probably don't need to spend the time learning to really control the quad directly. I use my DX6i with a USB receiver for the simulators so it's the same transmitter for flying as simulator and can get used to stick feel, the QX7 is a nice transmitter with USB connection built in but both of those are really more for the DIY crowd.