so ive been watching fpv content for like 6 months now and i finally decided i want to actually get into it. the problem is i dont know if i should just buy something prebuilt like a DJI Avata or one of those BNF whoops, or if i should just go ahead and build something from the start. everyone seems to have really strong opinions about this and half the reddit threads i found are from like 2019 so im not sure how relevant they still are.

my main thing is i want to freestyle eventually, maybe some light racing. i dont have any soldering experience but im not opposed to learning. budget is probably around $400-500 all in including goggles if thats even realistic, i genuinely have no idea. any thoughts on where to actually start here would be helpful

honest take: $400-500 all in is going to be really tight if you want decent goggles in that number. like you can get a used pair of Walksnail Avatar or even just BoxerX goggles for around $150 secondhand but then youre already eating into your quad budget pretty fast.

for actually getting into it i usually tell people to grab a BNF 5in or a Mobula7 type whoop first just to get stick time without destroying something expensive. Happymodel and BetaFPV both make solid prebuilt stuff at the beginner tier, nothing fancy but they fly fine and you'll learn way more crashing a cheap whoop indoors than staring at a parts list for 3 weeks. once you know you actually love it THEN build. the build process teaches you a ton but its brutal when you dont even know if the hobby is for you yet

i was in the exact same spot like 8 months ago and ended up going the prebuilt route with a BetaFPV Meteor75 pro and honestly it was the right call for me. got comfortable with betaflight basics, learned how rates work, crashed it like 200 times and it still flies. the build thing is cool and i do want to do it eventually but i think if i had started with a scratch build i would have given up tbh just because troubleshooting your first build when you dont know anything is kinda miserable