ok so ive been flying dji v2 goggles for about two years now and honestly the image quality is great but im starting to get into more technical freestyle and the latency is just bothering me even though people say its fine. a buddy of mine let me try his fat shark dominators with a rapidfire module and i flew a 5 inch through some trees and it felt... different. like more connected somehow even though the picture was obviously worse.

so now im down the rabbit hole of analog and i cant figure out if im crazy for considering this switch or if there's actually something to it. also the whole antenna thing is confusing me because he had some aftermarket antennas on his goggles that i dont recognize and he said it makes a huge difference but didnt really explain why. are all rp-sma antennas created equal or is there actually something to the pagoda vs lollipop vs whatever else debate

not trying to spend a ton of money here just want to understand what im actually getting into before i pull the trigger on a set of goggles

the latency thing is real and its not placebo, analog has somewhere around 20-25ms glass to glass versus dji v2 which is like 28-40ms depending on conditions and mode. for casual flying it doesnt matter but when youre doing tight technical stuff your brain does notice it even if you cant articulate why.

on the antenna question though ? yes it absolutely matters and your buddy is right. the stock antennas that come with most goggles are garbage, like genuinely embarrassing. a set of lollipops or pagodas from a decent manufacturer like fnv or axii will noticeably improve your range and penetration through obstacles. the pagoda design is technically a rhcp circular polarized antenna and it handles multipath interference better than linear antennas which is why you dont get as many breakups flying near buildings or trees. lollipops are similar concept. id say dont skimp on this part even if youre on a budget, like a 20 dollar pair of antennas makes more difference than a 100 dollar vtx upgrade in my experience.

for goggles if youre looking at used fat sharks watch out for foam deterioration and check the screens for burn in, people run those things hard

i made this exact switch last year and honestly i went back to dji after a few months lol. the connection feeling people describe is real i think but for me the image quality difference was just too distracting, kept focusing on the noise in the video instead of where i was flying. everyone's different though. if your buddy can let you try his setup more before you spend money that would be worth doing