Proper ND filters and settings

Harrisonw · Feb 8, 2017

PolarPro said:
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

Was this video edited in post for color?

Sent from my LG-LS997 using MavicPilots mobile app

PolarPro · Feb 8, 2017

Harrisonw said:
Was this video edited in post for color?

Sent from my LG-LS997 using MavicPilots mobile app

Not this one, this was a quick one I threw together to show the Cinema Series Filters in action,
-Jeff

SoapyGolem · Feb 8, 2017

So Jeff I also see n64 filters would you ever use that type of filter??

PolarPro · Feb 8, 2017

SoapyGolem said:
So Jeff I also see n64 filters would you ever use that type of filter??

I personally have never been in a situation where I needed one on my Mavic, but we have had a lot of requests for them, so we are making an ND64,

-Jeff

SoapyGolem · Feb 8, 2017

So what type of situation would use it in ?

PolarPro · Feb 9, 2017

SoapyGolem said:
So what type of situation would use it in ?

Whenever your native shutter is 1/3200th shooting at 30 or 24fps, very very bright conditions.
-Jeff

cobra46 · Feb 9, 2017

PolarPro said:
Whenever your native shutter is 1/3200th shooting at 30 or 24fps, very very bright conditions.
-Jeff

I'm planning a trip to the sun, do you think I can order an ND 256 and ND 512? Please provide maximum temperature capabilities as I hear it is warm there this time of year.

PolarPro · Feb 9, 2017

cobra46 said:
I'm planning a trip to the sun, do you think I can order an ND 256 and ND 512? Please provide maximum temperature capabilities as I hear it is warm there this time of year.

The ABS plastic body of the Mavic would melt long before our aluminum filter frames would.
I would also recommend some sunscreen

-Jeff

deltalimatango · Feb 9, 2017

bucefalo said:
150$ for a set of filters? do you really spend your money like that? sorry.. I prefer to have, maybe, less quality video than spend 150$ for those filters...

Sent from my R7plusf using Tapatalk

No one is forcing you to spend your money. Those who spend the money will ultimately have better looking videos than you do, but value is relative. Some might think spending $200 is a small price to pay for quality. That's like buying and expensive DSLR and then putting in a cheap memory card or using a cheap tripod only to find that they fail. You get what you pay for.

Scsiboy · Feb 9, 2017

Manfrenjensen said:
Great. I just bought the polar pro set that comes with ND4, ND8 and ND16. By the sound of it from this discussion, they should drop the ND4 and add an ND32.
I always thought the ND32 sounded extreme and wouldn't need it. I assumed the 16 would be good for sunny day snow stuff in the mountains... but sounds like I should have a 32. Always... just when I think I'm done spending money on this thing....

I have been using the Polar Pro 3 x set ND4 ND8 ND16 for a couple of weeks. I film in 1080 60p mode and find the ND8 adjusts shutter appropriately for sunny blue sky as well as white cloudy days. I found the ND16 seemed to pull the dark areas of the image such as under trees down too far. I cannot see any difference in Apple Final Cut Pro X editor on a 27inch screen between say 120 shutter and 200 shutter speeds. Just don't let the ISO (Camera sensor sensitivity) wonder to high over 800, you will see grain on the picture. If it gets dark such as shooting a sunset, take the filters off all together. I have observed that you need to just keep the shutter less than 1/250 and regardless of resolution or frame rate you capture, all will be fine. These Polar Pro filters are a must have. I fly with them on all the time. The videos with these just looks great. Colours pop without being exaggerated. Everything just looks nice. I have no issues with leaving the filters on during camera initialising. The camera boots up 100% every time with the filter installed. Happy flying.

bucefalo · Feb 9, 2017

deltalimatango said:
No one is forcing you to spend your money. Those who spend the money will ultimately have better looking videos than you do, but value is relative. Some might think spending $200 is a small price to pay for quality. That's like buying and expensive DSLR and then putting in a cheap memory card or using a cheap tripod only to find that they fail. You get what you pay for.

guys you are so wise.....
LOL!!!
Excuse me ... but i'm just saying that if i buy ONE item and it cost 100$
then it sounds kind of stupid to spend over it other 100$ just to make it better!! Means you are not satisfied with that product.. then you should spend money for a better product!
Now seems like you all became video makers? 80% quality is not enough you all want more and more.. and i've seen many of " yours " video .. you can have maybe this better picture quality but then you should focus more on your video editing skills

!
Everyone can spend money as they wish.. it just sounds weird to spend 1/5 of the money i spent on the mavic just for the filters!!

Wysiwyg · Feb 9, 2017

PolarPro said:
The ABS plastic body of the Mavic would melt long before our aluminum filter frames would.
I would also recommend some sunscreen

-Jeff

The way to avoid either of these issues would be to make that flight at night.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Brice LeCarre · Feb 9, 2017

bucefalo said:
guys you are so wise.....
LOL!!!
Excuse me ... but i'm just saying that if i buy ONE item and it cost 100$
then it sounds kind of stupid to spend over it other 100$ just to make it better!! Means you are not satisfied with that product.. then you should spend money for a better product!
Now seems like you all became video makers? 80% quality is not enough you all want more and more.. and i've seen many of " yours " video .. you can have maybe this better picture quality but then you should focus more on your video editing skills !
Everyone can spend money as they wish.. it just sounds weird to spend 1/5 of the money i spent on the mavic just for the filters!!

I think you misunderstood the purpose of ND filters. The camera quality is what it is and no filter will improve it. It's a tool to help your camera cope with difficult lighting conditions. So why spending so much money on filters? It's because you do not want to degrade the quality of the camera and good glass is more expensive.
Hollywood uses filters all the time on very expensive camera.
There maybe a time when after looking at your footage you'll think that a better light control would have made a good shot a great one.

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jyphotog · Feb 9, 2017

PolarPro said:
All of our Mavic filters have been updated and can be left on 100% of the time:
PolarPro | DJI Mavic Filters

Let me know if you have any questions on them!
-Jeff

Jeff, what are your thoughts on the Taco RC filters?

PolarPro · Feb 9, 2017

jyphotog said:
Jeff, what are your thoughts on the Taco RC filters?

No idea, I only use our gear on my personal cameras.
Our brand is not cheap, we make products for people who demand the best and support them with the top customer service team in the industry. We stand behind our products so much so that we offer a lifetime warranty.

-Jeff

Brice LeCarre · Feb 9, 2017

PolarPro said:
No idea, I only use our gear on my personal cameras.
Our brand is not cheap, we make products for people who demand the best and support them with the top customer service team in the industry. We stand behind our products so much so that we offer a lifetime warranty.

-Jeff

I bought filters from you for my Osmo, GoPros, Mavic and Inspire and I am very satisfied with your product. When I had a couple of bad filters they were replaced without problem. You are also a US company and that is cool.

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Filmscum · Feb 10, 2017

Scsiboy said:
I have been using the Polar Pro 3 x set ND4 ND8 ND16 for a couple of weeks. I film in 1080 60p mode and find the ND8 adjusts shutter appropriately for sunny blue sky as well as white cloudy days. I found the ND16 seemed to pull the dark areas of the image such as under trees down too far. I cannot see any difference in Apple Final Cut Pro X editor on a 27inch screen between say 120 shutter and 200 shutter speeds. Just don't let the ISO (Camera sensor sensitivity) wonder to high over 800, you will see grain on the picture. If it gets dark such as shooting a sunset, take the filters off all together. I have observed that you need to just keep the shutter less than 1/250 and regardless of resolution or frame rate you capture, all will be fine. These Polar Pro filters are a must have. I fly with them on all the time. The videos with these just looks great. Colours pop without being exaggerated. Everything just looks nice. I have no issues with leaving the filters on during camera initialising. The camera boots up 100% every time with the filter installed. Happy flying.

You said you shoot primarily in 1080 60p. How are you finding the video to look? Most people only shoot up to 30 fps in 1080 due to the pixel binning process the Mavic uses at 60fps. Here is a great thread about it-

Has Anyone tried 1080 50/60 fps ?

This was a HUGE issue when it first came out, as many like myself were expecting 60fps like our other DJI craft and found out it just isn't so. Do yourself a favor and shoot something in 1080 24 or 30fps and compare it to what you've been getting out of 1080 60fps. I personally shot at 60fps once just to see for myself and couldn't believe how awful the footage looked, totally unusable. I now mainly shoot in 2.7K and then downsample to 1080.

Manfrenjensen · Feb 10, 2017

Scsiboy said:
I have been using the Polar Pro 3 x set ND4 ND8 ND16 for a couple of weeks. I film in 1080 60p mode and find the ND8 adjusts shutter appropriately for sunny blue sky as well as white cloudy days. I found the ND16 seemed to pull the dark areas of the image such as under trees down too far. I cannot see any difference in Apple Final Cut Pro X editor on a 27inch screen between say 120 shutter and 200 shutter speeds. Just don't let the ISO (Camera sensor sensitivity) wonder to high over 800, you will see grain on the picture. If it gets dark such as shooting a sunset, take the filters off all together. I have observed that you need to just keep the shutter less than 1/250 and regardless of resolution or frame rate you capture, all will be fine. These Polar Pro filters are a must have. I fly with them on all the time. The videos with these just looks great. Colours pop without being exaggerated. Everything just looks nice. I have no issues with leaving the filters on during camera initialising. The camera boots up 100% every time with the filter installed. Happy flying.

Good info. Thanks. I'll have to try some of this out. I have always been recording in 4K. The reason being that if I wanted to crop the video down, I could so and retain good resolution. I'm still experimenting with everything and learning though.

bucefalo · Feb 11, 2017

Brice LeCarre said:
I think you misunderstood the purpose of ND filters. The camera quality is what it is and no filter will improve it. It's a tool to help your camera cope with difficult lighting conditions. So why spending so much money on filters? It's because you do not want to degrade the quality of the camera and good glass is more expensive.
Hollywood uses filters all the time on very expensive camera.
There maybe a time when after looking at your footage you'll think that a better light control would have made a good shot a great one.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

you are right and yes I get the reason why you might need nd filters or not..the only thing that I don't like is the price.!only that... also one thing that everybody should consider is watch again the advertising video of polar pro.. did u notice that in 99% of the footage the camera is not facing the sun,as we all learned, bus giving the back to the light source..so their advertising video looks good..but is basically using the right technique

Sent from my R7plusf using Tapatalk

Filmscum · Feb 11, 2017

Polarizers work best at a 90 degree angle from the sun, and diminish the more you move directly to the sun or 180 degrees from it. If your back is to the sun the polarizer does nothing at all except act as an ND as most true polas have a 1 to 1 1/2 stop filter factor.