Is it acceptable to adjust a VND (or a PL filter, same thing) while the drone is turned on? Would this eventually damage the gimbal motors? I've seen lots of people doing it in video reviews but I'm not confident enough to do it myself long-term just yet.

It depends on finger dexterity, some have none and bull in causing motors to try compensate, others can do it gently. Either way I think it’s better to turn off. Polarizing filter is useless unless you are flying 90 degrees to the sun, there is normally a white line on filter to show this. Just set it 90 degrees it doesn’t need to be changed after that as it will only work correctly if you fly straight lines. Not sure why except to get more money out of punters that people sell or buy these, they’re to tedious and waste so much time.
Hand held fine but drone I’ve used them but pretty much useless.

I think it is better to do this assembly with the power off ...

hallmark007 Posted at 6-17 05:00
It depends on finger dexterity, some have none and bull in causing motors to try compensate, others can do it gently. Either way I think it’s better to turn off. Polarizing filter is useless unless you are flying 90 degrees to the sun, there is normally a white line on filter to show this. Just set it 90 degrees it doesn’t need to be changed after that as it will only work correctly if you fly straight lines. Not sure why except to get more money out of punters that people sell or buy these, they’re to tedious and waste so much time.
Hand held fine but drone I’ve used them but pretty much useless.

yeah, I'm more interested in the VND one, I just added PL to the question because more people know what they are and the principle of adjusting is the same. While it is clear it's better to do it with the drone off, the reason for asking is because I think the main advantage of such a filter is not having to turn the drone off (ideally adjusting the filter while looking through the drone's camera to get the exact desired exposure). If I need to turn the drone off, then it doesn't present much of a benefit to me as replacing the filter on the MA2 is really easy, doesn't take more than 5 seconds.
As far as the gimbal motors go, it's clear that you can be rough or gentle about it but either way you're definitely going to put the gimbal into a position it doesn't want to be and the motors are probably going to be pushing full power against you. And I'm not sure how damaging this is... it would be really cool to have a "gimbal off" button to make the gimbal limp for this exact purpose without turning off the drone entirely.

Ice_2k Posted at 6-17 05:50
yeah, I'm more interested in the VND one, I just added PL to the question because more people know what they are and the principle of adjusting is the same. While it is clear it's better to do it with the drone off, the reason for asking is because I think the main advantage of such a filter is not having to turn the drone off (ideally adjusting the filter while looking through the drone's camera to get the exact desired exposure). If I need to turn the drone off, then it doesn't present much of a benefit to me as replacing the filter on the MA2 is really easy, doesn't take more than 5 seconds.
As far as the gimbal motors go, it's clear that you can be rough or gentle about it but either way you're definitely going to put the gimbal into a position it doesn't want to be and the motors are probably going to be pushing full power against you. And I'm not sure how damaging this is... it would be really cool to have a "gimbal off" button to make the gimbal limp for this exact purpose without turning off the drone entirely.

The VND are the handiest and make the most sense, I’ve used freewell before for M2 and turning the wheel is pretty good with freewell and can be achieved without strain on motors. One thing about VND is buy good ones and recommend PP or freewell .

Ice_2k Posted at 6-17 05:50
yeah, I'm more interested in the VND one, I just added PL to the question because more people know what they are and the principle of adjusting is the same. While it is clear it's better to do it with the drone off, the reason for asking is because I think the main advantage of such a filter is not having to turn the drone off (ideally adjusting the filter while looking through the drone's camera to get the exact desired exposure). If I need to turn the drone off, then it doesn't present much of a benefit to me as replacing the filter on the MA2 is really easy, doesn't take more than 5 seconds.
As far as the gimbal motors go, it's clear that you can be rough or gentle about it but either way you're definitely going to put the gimbal into a position it doesn't want to be and the motors are probably going to be pushing full power against you. And I'm not sure how damaging this is... it would be really cool to have a "gimbal off" button to make the gimbal limp for this exact purpose without turning off the drone entirely.

The VND are the handiest and make the most sense, I’ve used freewell before for M2 and turning the wheel is pretty good with freewell and can be achieved without strain on motors. One thing about VND is buy good ones and recommend PP or freewell .