Is the difference between the laforge with diversity and clearview worth the $550 difference? I have a buddy ready to pull the trigger on the clear view tomorrow morning, and I can't see spending that much money unless it's rock solid. I'd like to see it in person before spending that kind of money.

Well they are both diversity, but clearview is suppose to be hands down the best. But IMO there are far better things to spend $500 on in this hobby. Go FR632 or LaForge and then spend the rest on props. Money better spent.

Laforge choose best signal (RSSI), a very simple mechanism... while Clearview choose best image (pixel) quality and something else (can't remember), hence is more complicated in terms of the complexity on both hardware and software. It does image processing to an extend so that his why it expensive. Also it all hand made, the price should drop soon since they are working on new manufacturing process.