One thing I forgot to mention in the video is that the weight of the drone even with the filters on is still under 250gr! These are quite lightweight so no worries in that regard, but as you can see in the video that's also a small issue if you don't put them on correctly, because they can interfere with your footage.
I think the red corner with the polariser initially in your footage was that you were facing towards the light source (ie the sun) too much. Typically, the best results with polariser are with the light source at 90 degrees to the camera. That’s why the red colour went as you turned away.
I would not consider ND filters until DJI allows manual video control of the camera. If DJI does a firmware update with manual video control then I will look at ND filters.
Thanks for the honest review. I was suspecting ND filters on such a drone are mostly pointless, and thanks for an in-depth explanation why. So... I just saved $130 :)
Excellent review. The issue with the Red glow when using the polarisation filter, is that the colour of the ring is being reflected onto the lens. This can be solved by using a fine tipped brush and painting the inside and front face of the ring using a matt black paint. I used to have the issue on one of my photography filters where the ring was a matt silver. - Fletch - (UK)
Hi Mike, I kind of agree, the cost is a little bit to high. I have been getting pretty good video and photo's with out filters. I think for this drone I want to keep it simple and not so complex like when I fly with my Mavic 2 zoom.
You might be interested to know that the still settings have been upgraded on the DJI FLY app. On video the ev can be changed. I just got one, and I'm having alot of fun with it.
The most honest review I've seen of nd filters. The freewell filters appear to create a slight magenta cast, which would be consistent with some of their advertising material that shows the glass to have a magenta color?
You are the only one who say about camera subtitles! I was wondering many times if the camera increase ISO when adding the ND32Pl , now i can check if that is happening. That's, was very useful!
For basic operators, like myself, a huge piece of advice is to just fly slower. Make your turns, changes in direction and altitude slow and steady. Practice getting familiar with the control sticks with slow changes. Also, fly in cynamatic mode when you are trying to get higher quality shots. And for goodness sake don't point your drone into the sun.
I also had shake in my footage with the filter on my Mavic mini. Brought the drone back to adjust and still had shake and camera was not able to focus while moving for more than 5 seconds.
Hey Mike, thank you for testing the ND filters for us. This time though I disagree with your judgement about the usefulness of ND Filters for the Mavic Mini. Even with the filters, you won't be able to really get cinematic footage, as you cannot manually set the shutter speed on the Mavic Mini. You know well, that for cinematic footage, the shutter speed needs to be "twice" the frame rate, e.g. a shutter speed of 1/60s for a rate of 30fps. So spending 130 bucks for some polarizers and the potential to improve the quality of your fotos is a lot of money. My verdict is clear: No ND filters needed for the Mavic Mini.
@@DroneSupremacy but you reach that conclusion through the argument of the cost relative to the drone being too high. From a technical point of view, you can actually indirectly aim to get the correct reciprocal value for the Shutter Speed! By using the subtitles as you showed. Or hell, you should even be able to just preset everything in Stills mode before taking off, right? Or is the auto exposure gonna go crazy and prioritize Auto-ISO over auto-Shutter-Speed?
I've the 8 pack of Freewell and 3 out of 5 CPL filters damaged 2 places of my camera bezel due to sharp alumium edges from the inside where the screws are mounted. (sharp metal and plastic don't go well). The ND filters are different produced where the screws are and those are fine. Besides that the cpl versions don't fit tight on the camera and 2 of the 5 that I've are very loose. Again the 3 ND versions fit better and they even make a little click sound when mounting them on and of the camera. Besides that somethimes the gimbal buzzez continuously loudly from the filters load. Gimbal still functions but I don't think it's a good sign for the long term. More people have this issue but no reviewer (who are getting them for free) highlights this topic. It looks like they unitily shush on this issue. One person (user) contacted Freewell about this issue but they blamed the user. Sunnylife filters are lighter, have the best mounting mechanism with a click and they don't damage the camera bezel. I find the glass on the Freewell ND better than sunnylife. The Freewell CPL versions deform overall footage (colour, contrast) becouse the CPL reacts continue differently due to different filming angles and light) but they are oke for specific scene that you want to capture tho.
I would agree with Julia, to some extent. The red from the PL filter was reflection from the sun on the red ring. As you turned away from the sun the reflection/glare went away as the ring would now be shaded from the sun by the drone.
I've been having issues with my ND filters on my mini mavic, the gimbal motor overloads, causing it to shake, a lot, which will ruin the shot. seems to really happen when I have it go to the upward gimbal setting. This happens on both. sometime just touching the gimbal will help, but you need to return home for that.
I tried the Sunnylife ND Filters and when in photo mode 4:3 you can see vignetting in the corners of the photo, not so obvious in video but still disappointing
So you bought these peace of cra with red rings for $130 when you can buy them with black mat rings for $9 a peace with shipping from AliExprees and I guarantee you the quality is the same 100% no matter are the Freewell or Sunny Life or PGYtech or whatever ... They are all Chinese bull$h1t material ;) ... Майк благодаря много че ни каза че са шит, но наистина нямаше нужда да хвърляш толкова пари освен ако не са ти го подарили от Freewell ... Като ти гледам ревюто мисля че си си ги купил ... Ще споделя като ми дойдат евтините ND PL китайските филтри ... За моето Mini ... Now for the rest of the English audience I would say that all of those filters are 100% made in China even if they are saying are made somewhere else ... Personally I don't find difference between Freewell and SunnyLife filters for my Mavic Air and I have both of them ...
One thing I forgot to mention in the video is that the weight of the drone even with the filters on is still under 250gr!
These are quite lightweight so no worries in that regard, but as you can see in the video that's also a small issue if you don't put them on correctly, because they can interfere with your footage.
I think the red corner with the polariser initially in your footage was that you were facing towards the light source (ie the sun) too much. Typically, the best results with polariser are with the light source at 90 degrees to the camera. That’s why the red colour went as you turned away.
I would not consider ND filters until DJI allows manual video control of the camera. If DJI does a firmware update with manual video control then I will look at ND filters.
Armando Ferreira same here!
Can take glare off of water so worth it for some
THEY DID IT
Very honest, unbiased review.
Just what I was looking for, subbed :)
Great video, explained it well and demonstrated everything! Good job bro!!!
Thanks for the honest review. I was suspecting ND filters on such a drone are mostly pointless, and thanks for an in-depth explanation why. So... I just saved $130 :)
Excellent review. The issue with the Red glow when using the polarisation filter, is that the colour of the ring is being reflected onto the lens. This can be solved by using a fine tipped brush and painting the inside and front face of the ring using a matt black paint. I used to have the issue on one of my photography filters where the ring was a matt silver. - Fletch - (UK)
Oh my! At 7:05, the side by side comparison looks awful with the filters on. Why? Best image is no filter.
agree with you
Hi Mike, I kind of agree, the cost is a little bit to high. I have been getting pretty good video and photo's with out filters. I think for this drone I want to keep it simple and not so complex like when I fly with my Mavic 2 zoom.
You might be interested to know that the still settings have been upgraded on the DJI FLY app. On video the ev can be changed. I just got one, and I'm having alot of fun with it.
The most honest review I've seen of nd filters. The freewell filters appear to create a slight magenta cast, which would be consistent with some of their advertising material that shows the glass to have a magenta color?
You are the only one who say about camera subtitles! I was wondering many times if the camera increase ISO when adding the ND32Pl , now i can check if that is happening. That's, was very useful!
For basic operators, like myself, a huge piece of advice is to just fly slower. Make your turns, changes in direction and altitude slow and steady. Practice getting familiar with the control sticks with slow changes. Also, fly in cynamatic mode when you are trying to get higher quality shots. And for goodness sake don't point your drone into the sun.
Thank you, Mike, for your recommendation, your exposé was very clear and useful!
Thanks for the in depth video! I was about to order these on Amazon and i will not be ordering them now.
I also had shake in my footage with the filter on my Mavic mini. Brought the drone back to adjust and still had shake and camera was not able to focus while moving for more than 5 seconds.
The filters look great Mike!
Hey Mike, thank you for testing the ND filters for us. This time though I disagree with your judgement about the usefulness of ND Filters for the Mavic Mini. Even with the filters, you won't be able to really get cinematic footage, as you cannot manually set the shutter speed on the Mavic Mini. You know well, that for cinematic footage, the shutter speed needs to be "twice" the frame rate, e.g. a shutter speed of 1/60s for a rate of 30fps. So spending 130 bucks for some polarizers and the potential to improve the quality of your fotos is a lot of money. My verdict is clear: No ND filters needed for the Mavic Mini.
Watch the video until the end, you might find we have similar opinions on this :)
Another way is to film at 1080p 60fps so the shutter speed needs to be 1/120. So it will add a little motion blur without nd filters.
@@DroneSupremacy but you reach that conclusion through the argument of the cost relative to the drone being too high. From a technical point of view, you can actually indirectly aim to get the correct reciprocal value for the Shutter Speed! By using the subtitles as you showed. Or hell, you should even be able to just preset everything in Stills mode before taking off, right? Or is the auto exposure gonna go crazy and prioritize Auto-ISO over auto-Shutter-Speed?
I've the 8 pack of Freewell and 3 out of 5 CPL filters damaged 2 places of my camera bezel due to sharp alumium edges from the inside where the screws are mounted. (sharp metal and plastic don't go well). The ND filters are different produced where the screws are and those are fine. Besides that the cpl versions don't fit tight on the camera and 2 of the 5 that I've are very loose. Again the 3 ND versions fit better and they even make a little click sound when mounting them on and of the camera.
Besides that somethimes the gimbal buzzez continuously loudly from the filters load. Gimbal still functions but I don't think it's a good sign for the long term.
More people have this issue but no reviewer (who are getting them for free) highlights this topic. It looks like they unitily shush on this issue. One person (user) contacted Freewell about this issue but they blamed the user.
Sunnylife filters are lighter, have the best mounting mechanism with a click and they don't damage the camera bezel. I find the glass on the Freewell ND better than sunnylife. The Freewell CPL versions deform overall footage (colour, contrast) becouse the CPL reacts continue differently due to different filming angles and light) but they are oke for specific scene that you want to capture tho.
Im close to order the ND-Filters. Was the shaky issue due to improper installing or did it stay? If it is always, the filters ard not usable.
Useful vid although now you can select 'pro' on the mini 2 and change the camera settings manually to compliment the filters (2023)
I would agree with Julia, to some extent. The red from the PL filter was reflection from the sun on the red ring. As you turned away from the sun the reflection/glare went away as the ring would now be shaded from the sun by the drone.
Imaould nit use ND Filters on the DJI Mavic Mini. Maybe after an update. They are nearly useless with the AutomaticMode. Greets Frank 😊🎬
well, now we have manual camera controls :-)
The red vignette is from the reflection of the filter ring. Bad R&D...
i bought sunny life 6 pack filter set for the Mavis mini, haven't tried them out yet
I've been having issues with my ND filters on my mini mavic, the gimbal motor overloads, causing it to shake, a lot, which will ruin the shot. seems to really happen when I have it go to the upward gimbal setting.
This happens on both. sometime just touching the gimbal will help, but you need to return home for that.
this was very helpful thank you
Good test video. I do not need filters for my Mini. I need filters for my Air or I need a Mini
Certified fun haver 😂🤙🤙
Licensed and all.. 😂😂
Could you show some sample footage?
Yes certified fun haver ... cool!...& thanks tons...
I tried the Sunnylife ND Filters and when in photo mode 4:3 you can see vignetting in the corners of the photo, not so obvious in video but still disappointing
Video is cropped do vignette is not visible. Nd filters are useful for panning, CPL for water photo but most od all, they are mainly used for videos.
So you bought these peace of cra with red rings for $130 when you can buy them with black mat rings for $9 a peace with shipping from AliExprees and I guarantee you the quality is the same 100% no matter are the Freewell or Sunny Life or PGYtech or whatever ... They are all Chinese bull$h1t material ;) ... Майк благодаря много че ни каза че са шит, но наистина нямаше нужда да хвърляш толкова пари освен ако не са ти го подарили от Freewell ... Като ти гледам ревюто мисля че си си ги купил ... Ще споделя като ми дойдат евтините ND PL китайските филтри ... За моето Mini ... Now for the rest of the English audience I would say that all of those filters are 100% made in China even if they are saying are made somewhere else ... Personally I don't find difference between Freewell and SunnyLife filters for my Mavic Air and I have both of them ...
👌👌👍
$99 ! Ridiculous.
haha I thought FPV
I like the content, but your loudness on your videos is way loud...