DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

ND Filter with different strengths for main and tele lens?

c.oberschneider

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2018
Messages
126
Reactions
309
Age
40
Location
Salzburg, Austria
Site
www.oberschneider.com
I can’t get my head around this: why do all ND filters for the Mavic 3 have the same strength for the main camera and the tele lens? The tele lens camera with its f/4.4 aperture and tiny sensor receives way less light than the 4/3 camera, but the available ND filters have the same strength for both lenses. An ND 32 on a bright summer day may be great to get the right shutter speed when filming with the main camera, but will be too strong for the tele lens. I’d love to see someone produce a filter that compensates for that and lets both sensors receive the same amount of light (e.g. when using the main camera with f/4). Or am I missing a point here?
The attached image doesn’t show exactly what I mean, it’s a GND filter, but it’s useful to explain what I’m trying to say here.

E94BBC2D-E798-4F40-917A-DBCFF3B70A59.jpeg
 
You are exact on target. Also, DJI needs to make Mavic 4 with constant aperture optical zoom main camera, besides having US Category 2 COC. I assume that there is already RID awaiting a command from the mother ship.
 
You aren't missing anything. That is just a product of the telephoto camera not really being designed to work in tandem with the main camera - originally it was just intended to "explore" your next shooting location with, but they have since made it more useful.

The workaround is simply to set the main camera to F4 (or F4.5 if the M3 has 1/3 stop increments) and then set your exposure based on that aperture and the ND filter you wish to use. Then your exposures will be as close as possible between both cameras - not perfect but workable. You could also fine tune ISO to get them even closer if you're willing to give up base ISO.

There would be no reason to be using the main camera at F2.8 on a bright sunny day for typical shooting scenarios anyway, so you wouldn't be at any disadvantage there either.
 
So what is the right factor for the upper one for a factor of 8 on the lower camera?

That is a trick question of course because it can only be correct for a very small percentage of the time. The correct density factor for the upper one totally depends on the aperture being used on the lower one and that can change many times per flight.
 
You aren't missing anything. That is just a product of the telephoto camera not really being designed to work in tandem with the main camera - originally it was just intended to "explore" your next shooting location with, but they have since made it more useful.

The workaround is simply to set the main camera to F4 (or F4.5 if the M3 has 1/3 stop increments) and then set your exposure based on that aperture and the ND filter you wish to use. Then your exposures will be as close as possible between both cameras - not perfect but workable. You could also fine tune ISO to get them even closer if you're willing to give up base ISO.

There would be no reason to be using the main camera at F2.8 on a bright sunny day for typical shooting scenarios anyway, so you wouldn't be at any disadvantage there either.
f4.0-4.5 is going to be the sharpest image on the main lens anyway.
I’d only shoot f2.8 for low light scenes- dusk:dawn cityscapes etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GadgetGuy
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,593
Messages
1,554,205
Members
159,598
Latest member
fast54