Mavic 4 Pro CPL and NDPL lenses causing softness issues on the 70mm and 160mm lenses

[gesails]

I have tested Freewell and another brand's (cant remember which one, as I returned very quickly) NDPL Filters for the Mavic 4 Pro, and have been running into image softness issues when trying to use either of the zoom lenses with the NDPL filters. I know in general zoom lenses can have issues with polarizers as the leaf structure on the lenses can cause softness when zoomed in, but wanted to see if anyone else was having these issues with other brands.

I know the simple solution is to just use ND Filters, but I do alot of filming over water and the glare is always an issue. I am planning to return the Freewell’s, and maybe try out polarpro’s but dont want to do that if people are getting that issue with those as well.

 

[Landshark99]

I understand your need to use a ND/CPL but I have never liked to stack filters and with those lower resolution tele lenses I can see how that might have some effect on the resolution. I am also coming from more of a stills usage so single use filters are fine for me

 

[rv Jackson]

My PolarPro NDCPL filters don't work very well on the 168mm tele lens. Otherwise they are very good.

 

[SkywalkerFeng]

I have tested Freewell and another brand's (cant remember which one, as I returned very quickly) NDPL Filters for the Mavic 4 Pro, and have been running into image softness issues when trying to use either of the zoom lenses with the NDPL filters. I know in general zoom lenses can have issues with polarizers as the leaf structure on the lenses can cause softness when zoomed in, but wanted to see if anyone else was having these issues with other brands.

I know the simple solution is to just use ND Filters, but I do alot of filming over water and the glare is always an issue. I am planning to return the Freewell’s, and maybe try out polarpro’s but dont want to do that if people are getting that issue with those as well.

I am also using Freewell CPL filter with Mavic 4 Pro, and have not observed any softness issues with 2.5X and 6X lenses. With Freewell CPL filter, both zoom lenses shot sharp images corner-to-corner.

Do you encounter softness issue every single time, or there is a particular situation you would get soft images with their CPL filter? Is it soft overall, or only occurs at certain area of the image?

 

[Landshark99]

curious are you using just CPL because the OP was talking about the ND/CPL two filters stacked together seems to me like it could cause an issue

 

[gesails]

I am also using Freewell CPL filter with Mavic 4 Pro, and have not observed any softness issues with 2.5X and 6X lenses. With Freewell CPL filter, both zoom lenses shot sharp images corner-to-corner.

Do you encounter softness issue every single time, or there is a particular situation you would get soft images with their CPL filter? Is it soft overall, or only occurs at certain area of the image?

I am using the freewell combo ND/PL filter, and yeah I have not had any issues with just the CPL (with no ND) for photos, the issues are with the ND/PL when I need to stop down for videos on bright days over the water.

 

[gesails]

curious are you using just CPL because the OP was talking about the ND/CPL two filters stacked together seems to me like it could cause an issue

Yeah I think the stacking of the filters is the issue, but I never had any issues like this with the mavic 3 freewell filters (granted I was using the tele-lenses a lot less with that as the footage was less usable), but the design of those filters had the nd and pl built into the same piece of glass, where I’m confused why Freewell took a stacked approach this time.

I want to try the polar pro ones because it seems like that design takes the older single-pane approach, but they’re pricey and I have seen a couple comments on YouTube saying they might have a similar issue.

 

[gesails]

My PolarPro NDCPL filters don't work very well on the 168mm tele lens. Otherwise they are very good.

Ahh thank you, just what I was looking for! That’s a shame though. I guess we can’t get everything perfect.