One dangerous side effect of diabetes that affects the eyes is called diabetic retinopathy. It happens as a result of alterations in the retina’s blood vessels, which can cause harm and even blindness. The development of red lesions in the retina is one typical sign of diabetic retinopathy. These red lesions may be a sign of microaneurysms or hemorrhages, which are important characteristics to identify and track as diabetic retinopathy progresses. This process becomes even more demanding in the early stages of the disease where symptoms are less pronounced in the images. Leveraging machine-based learning for medical image analysis, especially deep learning algorithms, has demonstrated its capability to enhance the early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, providing a more efficient and effective alternative to traditional manual assessments. The proposed work aims to improve the efficiency of early detection of diabetic retinopathy by utilizing Deep Learning (16-layer CNN) to determine a person’s likelihood of having diabetic retinopathy using a 02-Class model that compiles a variety of datasets, specifically IDRiD dataset. The entire dataset contains 18,590 fundus photographs, in which 3662 are allocated for training, 1928 for validation, and 13,000 for testing. All datasets had a similar distribution of output classes, which is a fundamental property of this type of data. Using the IDRiD dataset, the suggested Red Lesion detection system’s specificity and sensitivity were found to be 98% and 89%, respectively, with an accuracy of 95.32%. Using the MESSIDOR dataset, the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Classification System’s specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy were found to be 93.8, 92.3, and 94%, respectively.