so ive been lurking here for like 3 months trying to figure out if i should just grab something like a Diatone or BetaFPV prebuilt or just go full custom from the start. everyone seems to have a strong opinion on this and im getting kind of analysis paralysis at this point

my situation is i can solder okay, nothing fancy, i did some RC car stuff years ago. im not a complete beginner with electronics but i have zero flight time on an actual FPV quad. was thinking maybe the BetaFPV Cetus Pro to just learn on and then build something proper once i crash my way through the beginner phase, but idk if thats just throwing money away

also does anyone actually fly Diatone long term or is it one of those brands people buy once and then switch. ive seen mixed stuff on reddit but this place seems more serious so figured id ask here

the Cetus route isnt a bad call honestly, people dunk on it but for someone who hasnt flipped a quad in anger yet it does the job. the problem is youre gonna outgrow it faster than you think and then youre right back to this same question except now youre slightly less broke

if you can solder and you have some patience, just build from the jump. grab a 5inch freestyle frame, something like a Source One or even an Apex, throw a decent F7 stack on it, run Betaflight, done. youll learn more in the first two weeks of tuning that thing than you would in months on a prebuilt. crashes hurt more on your wallet but you actually understand what broke and why

Diatone is fine, not amazing, their frames are decent but i wouldnt say their prebuilts are anything special. the value prop just isnt there like it was a few years ago

i actually started on a BetaFPV prebuilt last year and dont regret it but also kind of do? like it got me flying which was the whole point but when stuff broke i had no idea what i was doing and ended up just buying parts to fix it anyway so i was basically learning the hard way regardless lol

if you can already solder id probably just build tbh