ND Filters for Mavic

Stealthmatt · Feb 26, 2017

msinger said:
I own all of the filters listed here. All of them should work well for you. I'll be posting a comparison of all of them within the next week.

Unless you're going to be flying over water or other highly reflective surfaces, they probably won't benefit you that much. Plus, they have to be rotated just the right way for the polarization to work properly. Here are some videos showing how the polarization works:

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Did you manage to get that comparison video up?

msinger · Feb 26, 2017

I did not have a chance to put it together yet. It's coming. I won't be making a video comparison though since it'll be impossible to ensure the outdoor conditions are identical when shooting with so many different filters.

Wombat55 · Feb 26, 2017

Owen Manderfield said:
Just a thought.

The reason to fit ND filters is to slow the shutter speed down so as to introduce some motion blur relative to the frame rate for a more pleasant viewing experience when panning or having any fast movements.

The downside of ND filters are:

Filters have to be fitted before flight and changed if light/subject changes

Adds weight /wear & tear on an already fragile gimbal.

No way to adjust mid-flight

Extra glass in front of camera potently adding colour caste

So why not add motion blur in post production software? The cost is about the same as a good set of filters.

Something like ReelSmart Motion Blur - RE:Vision Effects

The upside would be:

Settings can be optimised post capture and changed mid-flight as lighting or movement demands.

Same software would work for different drones/cameras - only one outlay for Mavic/P4/Go Pro....

Using a high shutter speed would allow for sharp stills to be pulled from 4k video.

The downsides might be:

Need to spend more time in post

Has anybody tried using motion blur software? After all its how CGI movies do it in the cinema - and that the look we're after,

Yeah, I suggested the same thing here on these forums awhile back. Just like color filters (which have pretty much been rendered obsolete for most purposes by Photoshop), ND filters really aren't doing anything that can't be mimicked by post-recording software processing. A software program could examine a video clip frame-by-frame and do a pretty good job of calculating what the individual frames would look like if the video camera exposure time had been longer. There is nothing "magical" or even the least bit remarkable about what the ND filters are being tasked to do here with drone videos.

jhubbs55 · Apr 1, 2017

which pgy tech filter should I use if it is cloudy?

msinger · Apr 1, 2017

jhubbs55 said:
which pgy tech filter should I use if it is cloudy?

Here's a good guide:

Wacker2611 · Apr 1, 2017

jhubbs55 said:
which pgy tech filter should I use if it is cloudy?

To be frank, you could get really bogged down on all the minutiae but with this camera, I really do feel that you don't need to pay super close attention to getting the absolute perfect shutter speed/exposure/ISO ratio. Personally I just keep an nd16 on mine almost all the time and if the image is a bit dark I'll up the ISO a bit (assuming you're at 1/60 shutter speed. Conversely, if you're a bit over exposed I just increase the shutter speed a bit - honestly, you really don't need to worry that much about shutter speed as long as it's reasonably low. You wouldn't notice the difference, unless you're a World Champion pixel peeper.

CanyonRunVideos · Apr 4, 2017

jhubbs55 said:
which pgy tech filter should I use if it is cloudy?

ND8

Riseaknight · Apr 5, 2017

What does uv filter from polar do and when should I use it?

PolarPro · Apr 6, 2017

Riseaknight said:
What does uv filter from polar do and when should I use it?

The UV is purely for lens protection when you do not need an ND filter to lower shutter speed.
It just acts as a first layer of defense if you crash your Mavic. A broken UV filter is less then replacing the whole camera/gimbal unit.

-Jeff from PolarPro

Balko · May 19, 2017

msinger said:
I did not receive the PGYTECH filters I ordered yet, so I really cannot recommend them over the TACO-RC filters. TACO-RC filters have always worked well for me in the past, so I would buy them sight unseen if these were my only two options.

Hi msinger. Did you you get the "Multi-coated" Taco's?

msinger · May 19, 2017

Balko · May 19, 2017

msinger said:
No.

Great! So getting the non-MC ones, which is even cheaper, is okay already as far as image quality is concerned?

msinger · May 20, 2017

Since I haven't personally compared them, I'm not sure if the difference will be noticeable. Here's some more information on what multi-coated filters are designed to do:

TACO-RC: "Rear surface is multi-coated to reduces the internal reflection between lens and filter to extreme minimum." (per their product listings)
Freewell Gear: "Multicoated filters are the next step towards hi-tech ND filter photography. ND filter glasses come in mono-coated or multicoated types. Every gap between the various lens elements and filters in the camera is a place where incoming light gets reflected back, causing lens flare. With the multi-coated glass, it becomes easier to reduce the reflection of light between every lens and filter glass. The major advantage of multicoated lens as compared to conventional non-coated glass is that the user does not have to worry about additional anti-lens flare measures when using multicoated lens. This is an ideal technique to capture stunningly clear and crisp video and photos." (see more details here)
2filter.com: "The rear optical coating of camera filters (the glass that faces the camera lens) is the most critical surface to be coated. If the camera filter's rear surface is multi-coated, it will reflect the minimum amount of light back to the first element in the lenses group." (see more details here)