Proper ND filters and settings

[Chagito85]

So are the filters they sell on the dji website good for the mavic?

 

[Myk]

You guessed wrong

Motion blur is usually controlled by frame rate.
"Realistic" motion blur has nothing to do with resolution.

Shoot 4K at 24fps and stick a nice ND filter (8, 16, 32). In post you can soften the image to taste.
I am not trying to start a fight. If you are happy with your result then that is all that matter but no manufacturer will make what you are suggesting because it makes no sense.

I live in Tucson and would love to take some videos of the mothballed/ deceased planes. Did you have to get special permission or just fly over the fence?

 

[halley]

I live in Tucson and would love to take some videos of the mothballed/ deceased planes. Did you have to get special permission or just fly over the fence?

Probably not a good idea to fly un-announced over a fence into a part of Davis Monthan AFB. The boneyard is still a military asset.

 

[Brice LeCarre]

I live in Tucson and would love to take some videos of the mothballed/ deceased planes. Did you have to get special permission or just fly over the fence?

I think it is possible with the right connections. But do not fly over the fence into a military base.

 

[Leibrecht]

Just new at this recording stuff....whats the best all around Shutter speed and frame rate with what ND filter #

 

[PolarPro]

Just new at this recording stuff....whats the best all around Shutter speed and frame rate with what ND filter #

A Popular Frame rate is 30 FPS and a good shutter speed for that is 1/60th.
The ND strength you use will vary based on how bright it is outside. The Brighter it is the stronger ND you will need to keep shutter properly exposed at 1/60th.

If you need help on determining which filter you use, we have a filter calculator app:
PolarPro Filter Calculator App

-Jeff from PolarPro

 

[FergmanTN]

I WOULD LOVE TO have an ND filter in a form of a Gimbal Globe Cover!
Please someone make it!
It would not interfere with gimbal movements, would be easy to install and would serve as extra level of protection -just like the current cover does.
It would be cool to have few of these gimbal covers made out of quality plastic: clear, ND8, ND16, ND32

I'm not a drone expert by any means but I have been a serious hobbyist photographer for 15 years. Just FYI, if you are trying to get high quality footage, the last thing you want to do is put plastic of any quality in front of your lens. You should look for "optical quality" glass and to do that in the shape of the gimbal cover would be prohibitively expensive.

 

[wombat]

I'm not a drone expert by any means but I have been a serious hobbyist photographer for 15 years. Just FYI, if you are trying to get high quality footage, the last thing you want to do is put plastic of any quality in front of your lens. You should look for "optical quality" glass and to do that in the shape of the gimbal cover would be prohibitively expensive.

here they are but I would not use them, filters on the lens is a much better idea
For DJI Mavic Pro Drone Quadcopter Gimbal Protector Cap Camera Cover | eBay

 

[tfrank48]

Does anyone just sell a single filter? I need one for snow, but everyone has filter packs for sale.

I'd actually like to try the DJI ones as they seem light and easiest to install, but shipping times are pretty long so I'm guessing they are not actually shipping yet.

You can buy individual filters on ebay ... I bought PGYTech. Easy to install, with no start-up issues. They ship from China, so a wait is in order, though.

 

[tfrank48]

ND Filters will lower shutter speed while leaving color neutral.
ND/PL Filters will lower shutter speed and also reduce glare and increase color saturation (so they alter the color profile a bit)

Some people prefer to shoot ND only, some enjoy the benefits of the ND/PL. I shoot with our ND8/PL and ND16/PL a lot of the time because I like the increased color saturation and reduced glare.
Here is an example of what the ND/PL's look like:

-Jeff

Impressive scenery!

 

[Insul8Man]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is flying safe!

Here in Rochester New York, we don’t typically have a lot of sunshine, even in the summertime and when we get to winter and fall it seems like six or seven months of blah gray skies. One would think for all the taxes we pay we could catch a break with some sun! Instead our consolation prize this year has been record rainfall, so no droughts in the Empire State, yippee!

That being said I recently purchased a six pack of filters from a company called NeatoTek

In a little clear plastic storage case, I received an ND4, ND8, ND16, a ND/CPL4, ND/CPL8 & an ND/CPL16 filter set for $34.99 USD on Amazon

The filters are easy on and off and they have never interfered with the gimbal calibration during startup.to date

They are silver in color and so far the results seem to be okay, admittedly I am still new to video recording and editing.

I have been testing them out using the same area of land and scenery as a baseline, first without a filter, then running the same flight route again for each filter and recording the time of day, the weather conditions and overall sky brightness or darkness

I figured I’d learn a little bit more this way by doing it instead of reading about.

One thing I will tell you is that I am amazed at how stable the 3 axis Gimbal & camera on the Mavic Pro are when the drone is 100, 200, or 300 feet in the air with 10 to 15 to 20 mph winds. The Mavic Pro makes an amateur videographer look like a pro just by taking off and hitting the record button.
Pretty **** cool!

I’ve also heard some good things about the taco RC filters and I’ve heard some really good things about the polar pro filters

I went this way simply in an effort to save a little money and see if there was a big difference from one filter to the next. I’m being told that there is a big difference in quality of footage.

One of my friends also has a Mavic Pro and he has the polar pro cinema version filters (6 pack set for $149.99 USD on Amazon). He’s gonna fly my baseline land & scenery location and we’re going to compare his video footage to my footage and see if there is a noticeable difference

I’ll keep everyone posted (if there’s interest) to see what we get for results

Until then, enjoy the skies and be safe!

 

[DevonFarm]

Mine is not very good yet It will improve and I have only flown on my farm so probably a bit boring to the rest of the world
Justice Susan

 

[GavieboyDji]

Use the polarpro app to help you choose which filter to use
All you do is point your drone at the scene and then put the iso settings in the polar pro app and it tells you which Nd filter you need

 

[keiro_pilot]

I use manual because it locks the settings in for a particular scene.

Pick the lowest ISO possible, then use the ND filter which brings your shutter speed down to apx 2x your frame rate.
I.E. for 30fps you would want your filter to produce around 1/60 sec.

For rule of thumb, use an ND32 for bright snow or sand scenes, an ND16 for most bright scenes and an ND8 for dimmer or shade scenes.

If you are removing/replacing your filters with the gimbal off, and well supported, you wont damage your gimbal. I am assuming you are using the lightweight "leave on during start" type of filters.

I use my ND16 the majority of the time.

Hey, i know thats topic is quite off but maybe u are still here and can't answer me... If iam using during sunny days ndfiltr16 and using ur settings i still have very darky video what i can do/change?