Polarizer?

[MikeyST1957]

I’m still sitting on the fence about buy a mini 4. … but getting closer

One thing I thought of last night… with my Nikon 35 mm cameras … I never take off my polarizing filters. Ever. It makes a HUGE difference especially in my BW photography.. particularly with moody dark skies and anything over water/ reflection
Just have to rotate the front of the filter while composing the shot and you can see the dramatic difference
I never like polarizing filters on my drones because when you change the flight direction, the filter is fixed and can’t be rotated
Switch direction relative to the sun, and you lose the effect

I’m thinking that’s changed now with the mini4 pro?
By adjusting the camera gimble to vertical; I think I would now have a polarizing adjustment on my controller correct?

 

[Felix le Chat]

I’m still sitting on the fence about buy a mini 4. … but getting closer

One thing I thought of last night… with my Nikon 35 mm cameras … I never take off my polarizing filters. Ever. It makes a HUGE difference especially in my BW photography.. particularly with moody dark skies and anything over water/ reflection
Just have to rotate the front of the filter while composing the shot and you can see the dramatic difference
I never like polarizing filters on my drones because when you change the flight direction, the filter is fixed and can’t be rotated
Switch direction relative to the sun, and you lose the effect

I’m thinking that’s changed now with the mini4 pro?
By adjusting the camera gimble to vertical; I think I would now have a polarizing adjustment on my controller correct?

What.... Landscape for polarized, portrait for unpolarized? I would imagine so.

 

[MikeyST1957]

It depends on the sun position
Polarizing filters actually have tiny thin lines that run across the whole filter
So as they are manually rotated ( on 35 mm cameras) the polarizing effect gets greater or less as you rotate the front of the filter 90 degrees. depending on the position of your light source to the camera
While you’re looking through the lens composing your shot, you gently rotate the front glass of the filter to either increase or decrease the effect. It can get real dramatic results

Problem has always been with a drone, the filter is fixed, and the polarizing effect will increase or decrease as your drone shifts its angle of view. There’s been no way to adjust it mid flight

I never take my polarizing filters off my hand held cameras

 

[MikeyST1957]

I think I’m just trying to find further reasons to convince myself I need to upgrade my mini2 ( ha)

 

[slup]

And do you think that you will like your landscape photos in a vertical position... or will you sacrifice resolution by cropping them to horizontal later?

 

[MikeyST1957]

I was thinking of that too
You never know where in the rotation of the filter would look best Might not be full vertical
Sometimes it’s only 1/4 turn or less

I guess maybe pull back a little on the image
Give more air around subject to allow a crop?

I don’t shoot much video so I’m still undecided about the 4
Just thinking out loud this morning
New puppy got me up at 4am

 

[FLDave]

I think I’m just trying to find further reasons to convince myself I need to upgrade my mini2 ( ha)

Just upgrade with purchased of a mini 4. No need to go through your analyses. Just do it.
Unless you business requires an upgrade there will never be a "need" to upgrade. Your current drone works fine, so just make the decision to upgrade or not; you seem to have all the information needed.

 

[MikeyST1957]

Agree good point

 

[JimSteadman]

Get the mini 4. You won't regret it. I used to use polarizers all the time on my Nikon cameras, They are great in some situations; not so much in others. I find that shooting wide shots which include the sky with a polarizer on results in one part of the sky being more polarized than the other. Maybe I was using them wrong, but I find it easier to edit the sky in post than to have one side of the sky significantly different than the other. Most of what you shoot with a drone will include some of that wide sky.

 

[akdrone]

Get the mini 4. You won't regret it. I used to use polarizers all the time on my Nikon cameras, They are great in some situations; not so much in others. I find that shooting wide shots which include the sky with a polarizer on results in one part of the sky being more polarized than the other. Maybe I was using them wrong, but I find it easier to edit the sky in post than to have one side of the sky significantly different than the other. Most of what you shoot with a drone will include some of that wide sky.

You weren't using them wrong. Polarizers do not affect anything with the sun in back or in front of you and they are strongest with the sky at 90deg so using them with wide angle lenses and sky is problematic. Bumping sky saturation in post IS much more effective. They are great when using a tele lens on a Mav 3 assuming you are not panning LOL.

 

[Meta4]

I find that shooting wide shots which include the sky with a polarizer on results in one part of the sky being more polarized than the other. Maybe I was using them wrong, but I find it easier to edit the sky in post than to have one side of the sky significantly different than the other.

You only get a good polarisation when the filter is aligned properly relative to where the sun is.
That's fine if you carefully set it before launching and leave the drone on that heading for the whole flight.
But if you turn the drone to another heading, you are going to get partial polarisation like that.

Polarisers are fine on the ground where you can adjust as often as needed,.
But they are a pain in the air and more trouble than they are worth.