ND Filters

olderrookie · 2025-08-23T09:57:46-0400

Couple of questions regarding filters:

1. Which are the must have and the nice to have filters?

2. Recommendations for good quality but not outrageously priced filters.

3. I’m bad at math, so when using filters are there adjustments I must make to the shutter speed/exposure time when filming video or shooting pictures.
• please provide simple/easy to understand examples when making shutter/ speed/exposure adjustments.

Thank you.

Felix le Chat · 2025-08-23T10:55:07-0400

Freewell and Polarpro are the most recognisable quality brands, Polarpro Cine have the best glass (cinema quality) but they are expensive. K&F Concepts are reasonably priced and offer quality optical grade glass. Neewer filters aren't bad and are probably the better quality amongst the cheaper choices.

A range of strengths? It depends on the aperture of the camera. The mini 3/4 pro tends towards over exposure in very bright conditions, so I'll use an ND16 or ND32 to give me a bit more wriggle room with the shutter speeds, but high strength ND filters (ND32 and higher) can play hell with the autofocus.

Setting the camera to 'auto' will allow it to choose the appropriate shutter speed for the amount of light being allowed to hit the sensor, but if you want to adjust the SS on your own: use the histogram for visual reference and look for a nice camel hump in the middle of the graph... that's normally where you'll get a nice, evenly exposed shot.

MS Coast · 2025-08-23T11:31:52-0400

olderrookie said:
Couple of questions regarding filters:

1. Which are the must have and the nice to have filters?

2. Recommendations for good quality but not outrageously priced filters.

3. I’m bad at math, so when using filters are there adjustments I must make to the shutter speed/exposure time when filming video or shooting pictures.
• please provide simple/easy to understand examples when making shutter/ speed/exposure adjustments.

Thank you.

There will be disagreement on this, but I'd say that filters for drones are all in the "nice to have" rather than "must have" category for almost all of us. If you don't know for sure that you need filters, you probably don't need filters. If you almost always shoot in auto mode, you probably don't need filters.

Regarding ND filters

ND filters reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor and allow/require you to decrease the shutter speed to maintain the same exposure. As an example, an ND32 filter cuts light throughput by five f-stops (2 to the 5th power), so for the same exposure, you'd have to reduce shutter speed by five f-stops - cut the speed in half five times, say from 1/1000 to 1/30 or so.

For still photos, filters are needed only if there's something moving and you want it to be blurred, like river rapids or waves. (You'll hear some folks say that ND filters do something for still photos other than just reducing the amount of light, but the explanations just don't make sense.)

For video, filters can render motion in a way that's more natural to the human and and more like what you see in movie theaters. But for all but the serious hobbyist, their effect isn't often significant, particularly for typical drone subjects which are not usually close to the camera. If you want the very best, most cinema-like results for something other than casual and social media use, ND filters may be useful.

Regarding polarizing filters

Useful for reducing glare, but difficult to use on drones because the camera angle relative to the sun varies so much. You can usually get acceptable results by adjusting the position of the drone.

olderrookie · 2025-08-23T12:40:41-0400

MS Coast said:
There will be disagreement on this, but I'd say that filters for drones are all in the "nice to have" rather than "must have" category for almost all of us. If you don't know for sure that you need filters, you probably don't need filters. If you almost always shoot in auto mode, you probably don't need filters.

Regarding ND filters

ND filters reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor and allow/require you to decrease the shutter speed to maintain the same exposure. As an example, an ND32 filter cuts light throughput by five f-stops (2 to the 5th power), so for the same exposure, you'd have to reduce shutter speed by five f-stops - cut the speed in half five times, say from 1/1000 to 1/30 or so.

For still photos, filters are needed only if there's something moving and you want it to be blurred, like river rapids or waves. (You'll hear some folks say that ND filters do something for still photos other than just reducing the amount of light, but the explanations just don't make sense.)

For video, filters can render motion in a way that's more natural to the human and and more like what you see in movie theaters. But for all but the serious hobbyist, their effect isn't often significant, particularly for typical drone subjects which are not usually close to the camera. If you want the very best, most cinema-like results for something other than casual and social media use, ND filters may be useful.

Regarding polarizing filters

Useful for reducing glare, but difficult to use on drones because the camera angle relative to the sun varies so much. You can usually get acceptable results by adjusting the position of the drone.

Very useful information. I love to shoot sunrises/sunsets using both video and stills on my drone. Suggestions on type of filters or drone settings for optimal quality?
I really dislike math-thats why I have trouble formulas.

MS Coast · 2025-08-23T14:54:46-0400

olderrookie said:
Very useful information. I love to shoot sunrises/sunsets using both video and stills on my drone. Suggestions on type of filters or drone settings for optimal quality?
I really dislike math-thats why I have trouble formulas.

You might search for advice and examples of sunset photos on the forum. I'll offer some thoughts from my perspective, too,

Search results for query: sunset AEB

mavicpilots.com

I've never found it necessary to use a filter for sunset photos. Low ISO, high shutter speed, and small aperture (if available) are capable of reducing the exposure enough that a filter isn't needed.

Exposure is probably the most significant thing in a sunset photo, and it's a highly individual preference. So, go for the exposure that gives you the shot you like.

Here are a couple of things you might tinker with. Set the camera to auto and click on the screen in a mid-brightness area of the scene. Then use the EV control to adjust the exposure to an exposure you like and shoot the photo. Or if you're shooting video, lock the exposure and go. Instead of using the EV control, you can also tap on the screen in bright or less bright areas to change the exposure. For instance, if the scene is too bright, tap somewhere near the sun or the brightest sky to reduce the exposure.

Sunsets usually have very great ranges of brightness and a single setting won't expose the bright areas and the dark areas well. Have a look at the auto exposure bracketing (AEB) feature on the drone. Using AEB, a single shutter release will take multiple photos: one at the nominal exposure and some at higher and lower exposures. You may find that one of the photos is just what you want, or you can use a photo editing software to merge the images into something that takes the best from each to produce an HDR or high dynamic range photo.

Sometimes the best sunset photos can be shot after the sun drops below the horizon. The colors can be more intense and there's no longer that hot spot that gets blown out.

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