Looking for Hardware Advice

Wow, I've been bitten by the drone bug.  Now that I'm here its all a bit overwhelming of where to start.

Right now I'm not too concerned about the specifications of the drone itself but how to automate it.  I have an idea is to create a tablet/phone app that after very few instructions the drone will do its thing. In its most basic form, I want to restrict the area and for it to track a moving object.  I realize this may have already been done, but I will want to add some complexity that should be easy to do once I get the basics done.  Hoping to put a prototype together and realise I may need to hire help but want to start with the shopping list first.  This is where I'm stuck.

What exact hardware to use for the automation is quite complex and looking for advise as to where to start.  So far I've learned, for automated flying you need an autopilot.  From what I understand, the ones I found basically enable you to preprogram the drone to fly from x,y,z to x2,y2,z2. The autopilot does the rest.  I found: 
- 3dr Pixhawk
- DJI A2
- NAZA
- Openpilot

Are there any others I should consider?  The application I want to develop is fairly simple.  So I'm looking for reliabililty and low cost.  The distances will be no more than 100meters most likely.  So we're not talking about flying kilometers (at least not yet). 

Now as I understand, the autopilots do not do any visual tracking.  There are other products out there being developed that will enable this feature.  Namely I found:
Percepto - available hopefully in Oct 2015  
3DR SHIFT - available Fall 2015
Is there anything else out there that is available today? (I'm guessing not since both seem to be in a race)

From my very brief initial dive into the world of drones, I'm thinking the 3dr pixhawk and SHIFT would be the best combination to make the tracking drone my dad can use.

Anyone other there have any suggestions or on-line resources that would enlighten a newcomer?
many thanks

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