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.

 

[AMann]

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.

White snow or sand in an aerial can blow out as white, even with fast shutter speeds and low ISO’s. They also let you use a narrower depth of field by using a larger aperture opening if you want to blur the background in a still.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

White snow or sand in an aerial can blow out as white, even with fast shutter speeds and low ISO’s. They also let you use a narrower depth of field by using a larger aperture opening if you want to blur the background in a still.

Plus if you want movement blur in your photo such as water or a vehicle you might need an ND filter depending on lighting conditions.

 

[Ralph thompson]

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.

A small correction, ND filters are used for still photography, often in order to get a soft blur on water falls, rapids and sea scapes. There are many reasons to use ND filters and polarizers for artistic reasons. And with the amazing ability of modern drones to hold position, a slow shutter speed is handy for dynamic effects like moving cars, ships or aircraft.

 

[AMann]

A small correction, ND filters are used for still photography, often in order to get a soft blur on water falls, rapids and sea scapes. There are many reasons to use ND filters and polarizers for artistic reasons. And with the amazing ability of modern drones to hold position, a slow shutter speed is handy for dynamic effects like moving cars, ships or aircraft.

Good point about using a drone as a tripod- I want to explore that idea with mine.

I also really like images by people who’ve used dark ND filters to remove people from busy places- or to make them look like wisps of fog. I’ve seen some really eerie and dramatic images using welders glass as a very dark ND filter. Some of the most striking long-exposure daylight images using ND filters that I remember are of apocalyptic city images in busy places that appear abandoned, some with one lone person in them (who must stay still during the entire exposure), and one taken at Auschwitz with ghostly streams of fog (people) going up and down the stairs and across the walkways.

 

[PHZ]

Doesn't the Mavic 4 Pro have an adjustable aperture? This could be very useful when you don't have ND filters available, or when you are shooting both photos and video in the same flight.

 

[Filmarik]

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.

100% in agreement

 

[Filmarik]

Good point about using a drone as a tripod- I want to explore that idea with mine.

I also really like images by people who’ve used dark ND filters to remove people from busy places- or to make them look like wisps of fog. I’ve seen some really eerie and dramatic images using welders glass as a very dark ND filter. Some of the most striking long-exposure daylight images using ND filters that I remember are of apocalyptic city images in busy places that appear abandoned, some with one lone person in them (who must stay still during the entire exposure), and one taken at Auschwitz with ghostly streams of fog (people) going up and down the stairs and across the walkways.

For that to work you'd need to use very long exposure of several seconds or even minutes with camera on tripod. While certainly interesting method, using a drone for this would pose a several challenges. The major one is the motion blur. Drones are by nature not as stable as camera on a tripod so any exposure longer than 1 sec will most likely introduce some level of motion blur. Despite some claiming to achieve "perfectly" sharp photos at long exposures with their drone. The limit is definitely somewhere around 1 sec from my experience, and even that could prove too long in windy conditions. And 1 sec might not be enough to achieve the desired effect of capturing busy places completely void of people.

 

[AMann]

100% in agreement

Sorry, totally disagree

My favorite ND filters to use, both on my F5 (when I used to shoot with film), and now on my DSLR and drone is a graduated ND filter. You can shoot really nice sunsets with them as the graduation (darker on top than in the bottom) gives you the ability to save details in the sky and keep the ground exposed nicely. It’s really nice in photos where there are city lights below and clouds in the sky that are brightly backlit.