Anyone using a circular polorizer on Mavic 3?

[GadgetGuy]

Keep in mind that polarizer filters steal around 1.5 stops of light, forcing a longer shutter speed at a fixed aperture. For a hovering, jittery camera dangling off of tiny drones, that is NOT an advantage, but quite the opposite.

Indeed! No free lunch!

 

[TigersFan]

I use a PGYTECH circular polorizer on my Mavic 3 Cine to great effect. I only unmount it when I want to use a wide-angle or anamorphic lens. I shoot mostly in bright light over a large marsh; the polarizer greatly eliminates reflections, increases contrast and emphasizes the blues and greens as expected. The reduction in light through the polarizer works to my advantage in this situation. I recommend it. I also use a circular polarizer on my Mavic 2 Pro to great effect.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I use a PGYTECH circular polorizer on my Mavic 3 Cine to great effect. I only unmount it when I want to use a wide-angle or anamorphic lens. I shoot mostly in bright light over a large marsh; the polarizer greatly eliminates reflections, increases contrast and emphasizes the blues and greens as expected. The reduction in light through the polarizer works to my advantage in this situation. I recommend it. I also use a circular polarizer on my Mavic 2 Pro to great effect.

As long as your camera angle relative to the sun remains constant during shooting, the polarization will help, but polarizers were designed to be rotated to maximize the polarization during shooting, any time the the direction of shooting changes. That can't be done on a drone in the air, which is normally constantly changing direction. When off angle, the polarizer just becomes a plain ND filter.

 

[jephoto]

As long as your camera angle relative to the sun remains constant during shooting, the polarization will help, but polarizers were designed to be rotated to maximize the polarization during shooting, any time the the direction of shooting changes. That can't be done on a drone in the air, which is normally constantly changing direction. When off angle, the polarizer just becomes a plain ND filter.

Which is why I got out of the habit of using them. That and with a 24mm equivalent. Angle of view sometimes part of the sky would be polarized, and part not. Exacerbated by when I do multi frame panos.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Which is why I got out of the habit of using them. That and with a 24mm equivalent. Angle of view sometimes part of the sky would be polarized, and part not. Exacerbated by when I do multi frame panos.

Exactly! They make shooting decent 360 panos impossible because of the huge variations in polarization during the 360 shooting algorithm.

 

[TigersFan]

As long as your camera angle relative to the sun remains constant during shooting, the polarization will help, but polarizers were designed to be rotated to maximize the polarization during shooting, any time the the direction of shooting changes. That can't be done on a drone in the air, which is normally constantly changing direction. When off angle, the polarizer just becomes a plain ND filter.

I rotate the circular polarizer before I fly and it works fine for my intended purpose. On my hand-held camera, I rotate it as I need while I shoot. It's a great tool.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I rotate the circular polarizer before I fly and it works fine for my intended purpose. On my hand-held camera, I rotate it as I need while I shoot. It's a great tool.

So do you only fly and shoot in one direction for each flight, and then land and adjust the circular polarizer for flying in a different direction?

 

[TigersFan]

No, I don't touch the polarizer on the drone very often once it is set to eliminate reflections. I understand how a circular polarizer works, and it is more flexible than you are describing.

 

[GadgetGuy]

No, I don't touch the polarizer on the drone very often once it is set to eliminate reflections. I understand how a circular polarizer works, and it is more flexible than you are describing.

Can you elaborate further on that flexibility? You indicate that on your handheld camera that you rotate it as needed while shooting. How do you do that in the air? How do you eliminate reflections with the polarizer on the drone camera when you are not flying in the same direction for which you have set the polarizer before take off?

 

[TigersFan]

Like I said several times, I do NOT rotate the polarizer in the air. There is a position (actually 2) that when aligned with the horizon permits all reflections to enter the lens. If this position is rotated 90 degrees, then it eliminates almost all reflections. This is how I set it before I fly. When I am flying towards the sun, reflections in the water are eliminated; when I fly away from the sun, there are no reflections to worry about. As long as I am not looking at the sun, the sky is bluer, vegetation is greener and contrast is improved over not using the polarizer at all. I suppose I could use a simple polarized lens with the polarizing axis oriented in the same way, if I could find one. This makes quite a nice difference in my photographs and videos.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Like I said several times, I do NOT rotate the polarizer in the air. There is a position (actually 2) that when aligned with the horizon permits all reflections to enter the lens. If this position is rotated 90 degrees, then it eliminates almost all reflections. This is how I set it before I fly. When I am flying towards the sun, reflections in the water are eliminated; when I fly away from the sun, there are no reflections to worry about. As long as I am not looking at the sun, the sky is bluer, vegetation is greener and contrast is improved over not using the polarizer at all. I suppose I could use a simple polarized lens with the polarizing axis oriented in the same way, if I could find one. This makes quite a nice difference in my photographs and videos.

Excellent clarification. Very helpful. May I assume you also have to use autoexposure when shooting video with this setup?

 

[TigersFan]

Not necessarily but it is useful.

 

[Moving Zen]

I don't know if this is helpful to you guys or not but I use a pair of sunglasses to tune my polarizing filter. This only works if the glasses are polarized. If you take two pairs of polarized sunglasses and orient them 90 degrees out no light will be visible thru both pairs. If you orient them the same horizontally you'll be able to see right through both lenses. If the light is blocked when the glasses are oriented 90 degrees out both pairs are polarized. So anyway, put the drone on a table and put the glasses on the table directly in front of the camera. Look at the video and spin the polarizer until max light transmission is achieved. Filter is now tuned to block horizontal light waves.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I don't know if this is helpful to you guys or not but I use a pair of sunglasses to tune my polarizing filter. This only works if the glasses are polarized. If you take two pairs of polarized sunglasses and orient them 90 degrees out no light will be visible thru both pairs. If you orient them the same horizontally you'll be able to see right through both lenses. If the light is blocked when the glasses are oriented 90 degrees out both pairs are polarized. So anyway, put the drone on a table and put the glasses on the table directly in front of the camera. Look at the video and spin the polarizer until max light transmission is achieved. Filter is now tuned to block horizontal light waves.

If max light transmission is achieved between two polarizers, how is the polarizer blocking anything other than its ND factor? Assuming that were true, how does that help when flying the drone in different directions? All it establishes is that the polarization is 90° to your sunglasses on the table, which has nothing to do with the varying angle of the sun during flight, which is what causes the glare you are trying to control. There is no one setting of the polarizer that will work continuously unless you are only flying in a single direction. How do you know what direction your sunglasses are polarized for?

 

[Moving Zen]

If max light transmission is achieved between two polarizers, how is the polarizer blocking anything other than its ND factor? Assuming that were true, how does that help when flying the drone in different directions? All it establishes is that the polarization is 90° to your sunglasses on the table, which has nothing to do with the varying angle of the sun during flight, which is what causes the glare you are trying to control. There is no one setting of the polarizer that will work continuously unless you are only flying in a single direction. How do you know what direction your sunglasses are polarized for?

My understanding is that polarized sunglasses allow vertical light to pass while blocking other directional light. Reflected light comes off of surfaces horizontally and is blocked by the polarization. I wear sunglasses all the time and it's not a perfect solution but they work the majority of the time.
I might be misunderstanding your questions, and if I am I apologize. When I tune the CPL with the sunglasses looking for max light transmission I'm aligning their filters. That (I expect) sets the CPL filter vertically which should block fixed horizontal light (glare). I pointed out that two pairs of sunglass that are polarized and oriented 90 degrees out should block all light transmission as way to verify the sunglass you're using to tune the CPL are actually polarized. If they aren't you'd never see a change in the light intensity through the CPL and glasses which would negate my method.
I hope that helps a little better. I'm just putting sunglasses on my drone because that's the best I can do. I can't account for all glare but I'll take what I can get. I fly over water a lot and it helps.

 

[GadgetGuy]

My understanding is that polarized sunglasses allow vertical light to pass while blocking other directional light. Reflected light comes off of surfaces horizontally and is blocked by the polarization. I wear sunglasses all the time and it's not a perfect solution but they work the majority of the time.
I might be misunderstanding your questions, and if I am I apologize. When I tune the CPL with the sunglasses looking for max light transmission I'm aligning their filters. That (I expect) sets the CPL filter vertically which should block fixed horizontal light (glare). I pointed out that two pairs of sunglass that are polarized and oriented 90 degrees out should block all light transmission as way to verify the sunglass you're using to tune the CPL are actually polarized. If they aren't you'd never see a change in the light intensity through the CPL and glasses which would negate my method.
I hope that helps a little better. I'm just putting sunglasses on my drone because that's the best I can do. I can't account for all glare but I'll take what I can get. I fly over water a lot and it helps.

Thank you for the more detailed explanation. It helps. I was missing the critical part about polarized glasses blocking out all vertical light. If that is true, your analysis and method makes sense.

I, myself, have observed that different devices use different directional polarization. If matched with using polarized sunglasses, they can become invisible. The head-up display in my car is only visible with unpolarized sunglasses. My Skycaddy is only visible when held in portrait mode, but is useless and invisible in landscape mode, while wearing polarized sunglasses. Its screen is obviously polarized as well.

I'll have give your method a try myself, on my drone, to see if the benefits outweigh the 2 stop loss of light. I often fly over water, too, and the reflections are a real pain when the sun gets low in the sky. Thanks again!

 

[Moving Zen]

Thank you for the more detailed explanation. It helps. I was missing the critical part about polarized glasses blocking out all vertical light. If that is true, your analysis and method makes sense.

I, myself, have observed that different devices use different directional polarization. If matched with using polarized sunglasses, they can become invisible. The head-up display in my car is only visible with unpolarized sunglasses. My Skycaddy is only visible when held in portrait mode, but is useless and invisible in landscape mode, while wearing polarized sunglasses. Its screen is obviously polarized as well.

I'll have give your method a try myself, on my drone, to see if the benefits outweigh the 2 stop loss of light. I often fly over water, too, and the reflections are a real pain when the sun gets low in the sky. Thanks again!

Just to make sure we're on the same page.. sunglasses pass vertically oriented light waves only and glare is supposed to be a fixed horizontal light wave. Things like LCD screens apparently give off horizontal light and that's why we can't read them with polarized sunglasses. I had that problem at a gas station once and no matter what pump I moved to, they were all blank.. until I took my glasses off. That and some interesting weirdness I noticed while wearing Costa inshore tuned polarized sunglasses on a golf course gave me some 'a ha?' moments that got me to do some reading on light waves and polarization.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

Hi gang

Witt my P3Pro I used a polorizer frquently. Mostly for stills.
On the P4 pro, less often, but still used often, but was more aware that in panos and when moving to different angles than my initial direction & setting, that maybe only part of the sky would be affected.
But I still liked how it cut reflections on foliage and increased saturation overall.
With my Mavic 3 (original) I don’t even have one yet.
Thinking about getting a Polar Pro circular polorizer. Again thinki my about cutting glare of foliage and landscapes. And being more willing to decide what shots I want to use it for initially and willing to land it and reset it if I decide I want to go on a dramatically different angle. Also, with the M3 batteries, I’ve got a lot of flexibility in a single session to do that where I did it with my earlier drones and shorter flight times.
Who of you have been using polarizers regularly on the M3 and what’s your opinion?

Thanks for the input.

I use circular polarizers on all my drones. I've been doing this since are started using drones. I fly over a lot of water and love being able to see what's underneath. If I need to, I change the angle the drone is to the sun to block the glare. I do love the better color saturation it gives as well.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

Just to make sure we're on the same page.. sunglasses pass vertically oriented light waves only and glare is supposed to be a fixed horizontal light wave. Things like LCD screens apparently give off horizontal light and that's why we can't read them with polarized sunglasses. I had that problem at a gas station once and no matter what pump I moved to, they were all blank.. until I took my glasses off. That and some interesting weirdness I noticed while wearing Costa inshore tuned polarized sunglasses on a golf course gave me some 'a ha?' moments that got me to do some reading on light waves and polarization.

That's funny. I had that happen, but remembered I couldn't look at computer monitors or any LCD screens with my polarized glasses and I immediately took my glasses off at the gas station.

 

[GadgetGuy]

That's funny. I had that happen, but remembered I couldn't look at computer monitors or any LCD screens with my polarized glasses and I immediately took my glasses off at the gas station.

Removing the polarized sunglasses is certainly easier than turning your head 90° to read the computer monitor, gas station screen, or head up display in a car. At least on a Sky Caddie or an iPad, you can easily change from landscape to portrait mode to read it. On a rotating computer monitor, changing from landscape to portrait should work, too.

Maybe, futuristic polaroid sunglasses will allow them to be rotated like the polarized filters!