Reminder that gear recommendations I keep coming back to

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. Maybe an unpopular opinion but here we go.

Spent the last few weekends digging into this and the deeper I go the more questions I have. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.

Looking for honest feedback, not validation. The trade-offs here are not obvious to me and I keep flip-flopping.