Most radios will give you pretty close to the same range, which is a lot farther than you can see or fly any heli made.

I always recommend the Futaba 9C radios because they are awsome and I like the features. For the heli, to learn on, a raptor 30 works great after the sim, and you will use the sim a lot after you learn too. After you master flying the 30, when you start doing the photography work, you will either want to go with a larger gas model or a larger electric model. The reason for this is that the fuel the nitro heli spews gets all over the lense and makes it a real pain. Gas and electric don't do that. Unfortunately, the gas and electric ones are not great for learning.

There are a lot of steps involved, but when you get them all down, it will be a lot of fun and you will get some great vid and stills.