Blurry images with ND Filters?

[knsaber]

Has anyone else had this issue while using ND filters?

I have a PolarPro 32ND + Polarizer filter I purchased from Amazon. Had this for about a year with my Mavic and I finally realized it's the culprit for many "artistically blurred" images. I will do more testing to see if it's because the filter was not seated correctly - but this happens too many times.

Please see the image comparison below with and without filter.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

Has anyone else had this issue while using ND filters?

I have a PolarPro 32ND + Polarizer filter I purchased from Amazon. Had this for about a year with my Mavic and I finally realized it's the culprit for many "artistically blurred" images. I will do more testing to see if it's because the filter was not seated correctly - but this happens too many times.

Please see the image comparison below with and without filter.

ND Filters are for video only 99% of the time to introduce motion blur. You usually don't want motion blur on photos unless you are trying to blur moving water in a waterfall, waves on a beach or a car driving fast down a road. By adding an ND filter you are slowing down the shutter speed on your photos, any movement by the drone while the shutter is open will make blurry photos.
Polar Pro does a good job showing some comparisons in this short video:

 

[ZX14-R]

Interesting.

 

[knsaber]

ND Filters are for video only 99% of the time to introduce motion blur. You usually don't want motion blur on photos unless you are trying to blur moving water in a waterfall, waves on a beach or a car driving fast down a road. By adding an ND filter you are slowing down the shutter speed on your photos, any movement by the drone while the shutter is open will make blurry photos.
Polar Pro does a good job showing some comparisons in this short video:

Thanks for the reply. I am a professional photographer so that issue is understood, and not the issue here. My odd problem is seen in the VIDEO screenshot above in 4K. Everything is exactly the same setting except for shutter speed and polarizer added. This doesn't matter if the drone is moving or not, the clarity without the ND filter is very crisp, and the video WITH ND filter seems to have some sort of "artistic blur" filter over it.

If you look closely at the background houses and trees, one is much more crisp than the other. I also noticed this in a lot of my past video edits, and I just thought this was a Mavic's limitation to bitrate in defining tree details, but everyone else's videos are more crisp than mine.

Anyone else dealt with this?

 

[Meta4]

If you look closely at the background houses and trees, one is much more crisp than the other. I

The trees aren't a focus issue or motion blur.
What you are seeing there appears to be a compression artifact.
The with filter shot is also a little overexposed.

I will do more testing to see if it's because the filter was not seated correctly - but this happens too many times

But the rest of the image is sharply focused.

I also noticed this in a lot of my past video edits, and I just thought this was a Mavic's limitation to bitrate in defining tree details, but everyone else's videos are more crisp than mine.

If it was the Mavic, both images should look like that.

 

[knsaber]

It seems harder to explain than just a focus/blur issue which it is not. The video clip with the filter on displays a really weird effect where the edges are still very very sharp, but everything inside becomes muddled and blurred. It looks exactly like Photoshop's Smart Blur effect. How would a filter cause this?

 

[Meta4]

It seems harder to explain than just a focus/blur issue which it is not. The video clip with the filter on displays a really weird effect where the edges are still very very sharp, but everything inside becomes muddled and blurred. It looks exactly like Photoshop's Smart Blur effect. How would a filter cause this?

The filter didn't cause it - it would be all over the scene if it did.
It's just a coincidence that it's showing in the filter shot you used.

 

[Mike4884]

It seems harder to explain than just a focus/blur issue which it is not. The video clip with the filter on displays a really weird effect where the edges are still very very sharp, but everything inside becomes muddled and blurred. It looks exactly like Photoshop's Smart Blur effect. How would a filter cause this?

Question....where can i get a dog like this? ?

 

[knsaber]

Question....where can i get a dog like this? ?

Hahaha, I was so fixated with the effect I didn't notice this animal doesn't exist!

 

[lulu991]

I have bought polarpro ND filters for my Mavic Pro Platinum and I have the exact issue like you. I tried to compare video shot (trees and landscapes) with and without ND filter and the difference in sharpness/blur is huge. I have suspected that my mavics camera is broken, but without ND filter is the image nice and without any unnatural blur.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I have bought polarpro ND filters for my Mavic Pro Platinum and I have the exact issue like you. I tried to compare video shot (trees and landscapes) with and without ND filter and the difference in sharpness/blur is huge. I have suspected that my mavics camera is broken, but without ND filter is the image nice and without any unnatural blur.

Try in camera settings +1 on sharpen.

 

[Thomas B]

Single frames extracted from video will often be blurred, especially on a near object in central focus.

 

[knsaber]

I've figured out the weird blur issue. It's not caused by any filters, although adding ND filters will increase the likelihood of it happening.

Reason: Slow shutter speed!

While some of you mentioned this, I think you were trying to explain why a screen capture or photo would look blurry as in typical motion blur. When the shutter speed for video is set to 1/50s or lower, the Mavic sensor processes the frames in a weird way that looks like smart blur rather than motion blur. The edges are still sharp while any detail inside an object is blurred. Usually in a DSLR video, if the shutter is considered too low for motion, the whole image (including edges of objects) would show signs of motion blur.

I think it's still a weird issue that probably has to do with bitrates, but the easy answer is keeping shutter speed at 1/100 or higher.

 

[madthing]

This kinda defeats the purpose of buying for long exposure photography how did nobody flag this in all the videos about nd 1000 long exposure shots??