ND4 Polarised Filter as a permanent solution for DJI Air 2S?

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Not sure whether an ND4 with cut out so much light - but probably an ND32 would cut out that much light.
ND4 is designed to be used on cloudy days - so it would likely only cut out 10% of your light; at the same time it will help draw the contour of clouds.

Actually that surprised me so I had a google, and yes it works like this (from memory).
ND2 (1 stop) cuts out half the light = 50% light transmission
ND4 (2 stops) cuts out 50% more again = 25% light transmission
ND8 (3 stops) cuts out 50% more again = 12.5% light transmission
ND16 (4 stops) cuts out 50% more again = 6.25% light transmission
ND32 (5 stops) cuts out 50% more again = 3.13% light transmission
ND64 (6 stops) cuts out 50% more again = 1.56% light transmission

Glad most drone filters stop there !!
No wonder they aren't recommended for drone photography in general, and why many peoples long exposure shots are lucky to come out ok.

I'm equally surprised how good they can make video appear.
Just different purposes and it works for one and not the other.

 

[SkyeHigh]

An easy way to calculate the fraction of light passing through to the lens/sensor assembly is to use the reciprocal of the ND filter number.

1/2 = half
1/4 = quarter
1/8 = one eighth

 

[Meta4]

I'm equally surprised how good they can make video appear.
Just different purposes and it works for one and not the other.

ND filters don't make video appear any "better".
They don't have any effect on colour, contrast, saturation etc.
All they do is to force a shorter shutter speed than would otherwise be possible.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

ND filters don't make video appear any "better".

Motion blur is better (than flicker)

 

[ninja_geezer]

i dont think i have taken my ND 8 off since i have had the air 2 s..... only at night.

 

[Meta4]

Motion blur is better (than flicker)

Most drone video doesn't have any motion happening anywhere near enough to the camera for it to make any difference.

 

[Ice_2k]

Most drone video doesn't have any motion happening anywhere near enough to the camera for it to make any difference.

That is just plain false, i took this video just to see how the 2S performs in challenging light and the “stuttering” visible when the shutter was at less than 1/1000 is just killing me. The motion of the camera is more than enough to justify having the correct shutter speed.

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[Meta4]

That is just plain false, i took this video just to see how the 2S performs in challenging light and the “stuttering” visible when the shutter was at less than 1/1000 is just killing me. The motion of the camera is more than enough to justify having the correct shutter speed.

That's just plain confused.
The people that want motion blur try to shoot at slow shutter speeds like 1/60th so that any motion is blurred in each frame.
AT 1/800th or 1/1250th you're not going to get any motion blur at all.

 

[Ice_2k]

That's just plain confused.
The people that want motion blur try to shoot at slow shutter speeds like 1/60th so that any motion is blurred in each frame.
AT 1/800th or 1/1250th you're not going to get any motion blur at all.

That was exactly what I said…. The lack of motion blur is killing me in those shots, as opposed to what you said that it makes no difference if there is motion blur or not

 

[tlswift58]

I fly 99% of the time with the lowest filter that came with my FlyMore kit for the Air2 (3 of them) and never had issues with using it. In darker conditions, just up the + exposure to say .03 or .07 and fly.

Some people don't like ND's and that is very evident here. Like flying the drone - put one on, take the drone up, take pics / vid's to see if "YOU" like it. Very personal choice.

 

[Guido Cangelosi]

There's my small contribution towards understanding and using Neutral Density Filters.

The first table gives the relation between F-Stops and ND type.


The second table gives F-Stops in relation to weather conditions.

it also gives you the shutter speed you should use.

 

[Ice_2k]

I fly 99% of the time with the lowest filter that came with my FlyMore kit for the Air2 (3 of them) and never had issues with using it. In darker conditions, just up the + exposure to say .03 or .07 and fly.

Some people don't like ND's and that is very evident here. Like flying the drone - put one on, take the drone up, take pics / vid's to see if "YOU" like it. Very personal choice.

Well some of this is personal taste, but there are some things that are industry standards. If someone doesn’t like that particular look, it’s their right but we can safely say they are wrong. I know it’s an exaggeration, but you can’t say that preferring for instance a 1/1000 shutter speed versus the industry standard of doubling the frame rate is a personal choice no more than preferring a blown out sky compared to a correctly exposed image is a personal choice. It can be your personal choice and also objectively wrong at the same time

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Most drone video doesn't have any motion happening anywhere near enough to the camera for it to make any difference.

That's ok mate, whatever works for you.

 

[Meta4]

I fly 99% of the time with the lowest filter that came with my FlyMore kit for the Air2 (3 of them) and never had issues with using it. In darker conditions, just up the + exposure to say .03 or .07 and fly.

That would be the ND4 which cuts 75% of the light.
You would need to dial in 2.0 stops of exposure compensation to counter that.

Some people don't like ND's and that is very evident here.

Mostly people that understand photography and what ND filters actually do.

Like flying the drone - put one on, take the drone up, take pics / vid's to see if "YOU" like it. Very personal choice.

There are people that use ND filters to get a particular look for their videos.
But using an ND filter for shooting stills won't do anything to "improve" your photos.
Unless you have a particular reason to want to force a slower shutter speed, there's no reason at all to use ND filters for drone stills.

 

[Ice_2k]

That would be the ND4 which cuts 75% of the light.
You would need to dial in 2.0 stops of exposure compensation to counter that.

The lowest filter that came with the Air 2 was ND16

 

[Meta4]

The lowest filter that came with the Air 2 was ND16

In that case it would be much worse since an ND16 cuts 94% of the light

 

[pommy]

Most drone video doesn't have any motion happening anywhere near enough to the camera for it to make any difference.

I’ve been researching this and it’s true.

All these amazing panning landscape “cinematic” videos with “motion blur”? Nope. The drone is too far away, filter or not - it makes no difference.

I’ve found that it’s only the closer videos where you get the unrealistic sharpness that people want to replace with more lifelike motion blur.

 

[Ice_2k]

I’ve been researching this and it’s true.

All these amazing panning landscape “cinematic” videos with “motion blur”? Nope. The drone is too far away, filter or not - it makes no difference.

I’ve found that it’s only the closer videos where you get the unrealistic sharpness that people want to replace with more lifelike motion blur.

"Far away" only matters with respect to the position of the drone (e.g. flying in a certain direction filming a subject from 100m away won't get any noticeable motion blur) but it does not apply to orientation. Panning the camera around does require motion blur, or it looks stuttery. It's all about the transition from one frame to the next. If there is a large enough difference between them, you need blur to smooth the transition between the two.

 

[pommy]

you need blur to smooth the transition between the two.

Honestly, I’ve never had to.

 

[ninja_geezer]

I always have a polarising ND filter fitted of some degree i like the way the colours looks using them and they stop a lot of light reflections on water ect. i use the freewell ones.