I started out with a convenient to change variable ND, tried all kinds ND strengths and I did get great motion blur flying fast and low but, honestly not worth the effort or the non uniform sky effect from a variable filter. So then I only used an nd 16 or nothing at all in low light, cloudy, real early. . . . Again, I'm not convinced that was really a very noticeable/worthy improvement, a bit more blur for rare low passes. Next trial, nd16 with PL, that I believe did slightly improve blur like before but, for my scenes, I think the Polarizer aspect is the best improvement. Flying over snow, water buildings. . .even glare from rock and vegetation is often reduced substantially when angled properly to the sunlight. I am speculating that the PL reduction in glare also slightly reduces the overall exposure range by dimming reflective highlight areas, and reducing the overall dynamic range of these shots which is great for our little drone sensors with poor dynamic range to begin with. Very recently I flew my mini 2 with PL one trip and no PL filter the next. I liked the PL footage better, improved saturated colors, more detail in highlight/reflective areas. Since I generally fly all over the place searching for cool angles to reveal scale, get nice parallax. . . I always fly in auto mode. I hate wasting flight time/battery fiddling with camera settings while airborne as ambient exposures constantly change anyway with quickly changing camera angles like orbits around a subject. . . . Not only am I searching for impressive angles and composition but also observing where the footage appears to be most attractive due to sun angle coupled with the auto settings and PL. Last thing, with so many airborne particles these days, especially smoke, I am quite sure the polarizer also reduces the haze associated to sunlight reflecting off that crap as well. . . I do remove my PL if I'm in low light. . . heavy clouds or sun rise/set trying to stop the auto setting from bumping up the ISO. . . Personally nd is not worth the effort for me. . . I rarely see/notice that jitter associated to the lack of motion blur and if it is real bad I suppose I could add blur in post anyway. . .
Way long winded, hope that helps!
PS never use digital zoom, you can alway zoom in post while better controlling you composition. The only reason I would even consider it. . . if I was searching for something, using it like magnifying glass. . . once found I'd go right back to 1x with 4k resolution. . .
Way long winded, hope that helps!
PS never use digital zoom, you can alway zoom in post while better controlling you composition. The only reason I would even consider it. . . if I was searching for something, using it like magnifying glass. . . once found I'd go right back to 1x with 4k resolution. . .