Do I need an ND filter for Mavic 4 Pro?

[marwan_zakaria]

Just purchased the Mini 5 Pro (and I loved it), and the Mavic 4 Pro - Creator Combo (just unboxed it). I am surprised the M4PRO does not come with ND filters. I remember reading something about eND filters (virtual filters - i.e., software-driven). Who is an authority on this topic and can help me understand if I need to purchase ND filters or not?

 

[AMann]

neutral density filters are useful if you are shooting bright things and can’t expose them correctly - like sunsets or white snow or light sand… software cannot fix overexposed parts of an image, there is simply no data for them to pull out.- just white. That’s when neutral density filters are useful.

 

[Meta4]

Who is an authority on this topic and can help me understand if I need to purchase ND filters or not?

If you don't know, that's an indication that you probably don't need ND filters.

 

[hank970]

I think ND filters are useless if you plan to shoot stills only. Camera sensors are biased to assume an overall scene reflectance of 18%. If you put on an ND filter. the camera will simply interpret the scene as too dark and will adjust shutter speed to still yield 18% reflectance. If the scene is so bright that the highest shutter speed isn't fast enough to prevent washed out highlights, then select a lower ISO. (Actually, the sensor will think the scene is too bright and will select a faster shutter speed to yield 18% reflectance. The images of things that should be dazzling white, like sunlight on snow, will look like they're gray. As a rule, when shooting bright stuff like snow or a white-sand beach, you should open the aperture or select a lower shutter speed to let in more light to avoid that gray look.)

Video is a different matter. ND filters are useful if you want to achieve much slower shutter speeds to yield cinematic blur.