MAVIC FILTERS - Opinions On These Filters

debric france · Mar 21, 2017

Does anyone hear about that ones ?>>>NOUVEAU - Kit de Filtres NiSi pour DJI Drone MAVIC PRO: Amazon.fr: Photo & Caméscopes

beatnik · Mar 21, 2017

I don't think the computer monitor method of PL orientation would work because you really need to set the filter rotation to the light rays of the sun, which would change over time of day and your shooting angle. You can get some really great looking stuff with circular polarized filters, but on a drone they can also produce banding in the sky and water when the orientation is off angle. Best practice would be to use a linear polarizing filter that doesn't need orientation or look through the filter right before flying, aim in the direction of the best scene, find a reflective object like glass or water and rotate the filter until the reflections diminish, then hold it steady and snap on the filter with the same orientation. Good to go. I have the ND32 and it's a little overkill. I had to shutter down to 30 with ISO 100 in shade. I think ND16 is best case for one size fits.

I just remembered I shot some footage with PL filter in wrong orientation. This was a combo PL and ND..See banding in the water sort of a gradient of blue?

MrMavic · Mar 21, 2017

beatnik said:
I don't think the computer monitor method of PL orientation would work

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You are correct, and that's what I was trying to get across in my post. You don't just rotate the filter to where it looks good and that's it. You have to change it every time the angle of the sun changes. This would make it useless on a drone camera because the angle of the sun is changing constantly while the drone is moving.

BIGSTALKS · Mar 21, 2017

Were better off with none pl

kika · Mar 21, 2017

MrMavic said:
Amazon sells a sun hood for $11.00 and free shipping. It fits very nicely on my Mavic.

It's more of a shade than a hood. Mavic camera is quite a wide angle and effective hood for it is impossible to make, given the gimbal and location of the camera. The effective wide angle hood is petal hood. And even it is not very effective, especially if you fly near reflective objects like water.
Generally speaking, shades improve contrast by removing ambient light from entering the camera eye from the sides and hoods remove flares by removing the rays from entering the eye directly from the light source at the "wrong" angles which cause internal lens reflections (which are also reduced by internal multicoating on the lens elements).
Imagine you shoot with the Mavic camera in the complete darkness, and you light up the flashlight and direct it at exactly 90 degrees angle right on the camera front glass element. In theory, the camera should see no light, but it will see quite a lot of light because of the glass internal light scattering. This is what shades are supposed to fight.

The filters that Bigstalks got aren't really cheap filters, they seem to be priced the same as PolarPro.

Depends on which PolarPros you are comparing with. The multicoated PolarPros are Cinema series and they are expensive. The "black" PolarPros are just HD glass. (this is from reading their website, I use Taco~~Bell~~).

debric france · Mar 27, 2017

And what do you think of the PGY Tech is it worth it?
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mstevens · Mar 27, 2017

debric france said:
And what do you think of the PGY Tech is it worth it?
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I've been looking at those! PGY Tech makes some nice stuff, and these filters are said to be multi-coated and not to interfere with gimbal initialization. The price is good and they come in a nice case.

My biggest problem with ordering these myself is that I'll be flying at the beach in the tropics so I expect to need an ND32 filter. That's why I haven't gotten a set of the DJI ones, which only go to ND16. One of the sets on Ali Express includes ND4, ND8, ND16, and ND32 filters, but there's also one with ND4 to 16, a UV filter, and a CPL filter. That's very tempting, especially as I'd like to leave a UV filter on the lens at all times when I'm not using a different filter, and I can't seem to find the PGY Tech UV filter for sale by itself.

Given the price, I think I'm probably going to order one of these sets. If the filters are crap, at least I'll have a decent filter case...

MrMavic · Mar 27, 2017

Just saw this video on PL filters.

Yeastinfection · Apr 13, 2017

MrMavic said:
Amazon sells a sun hood for $11.00 and free shipping. It fits very nicely on my Mavic.
The filters that Bigstalks got aren't really cheap filters, they seem to be priced the same as PolarPro.

View attachment 9024

i have that hood, it appears at times in the feed