Hey Folks,

I am torn between the Freewell All Day and Tiffen ND Filters. I am having trouble getting those smooth pan shots and smooth shots in general, and I wanted to invest in some ND Filters for my mini 2. Does anyone have experience with either of these? I hear that Freewell have issues with vignetting? And the Tiffen only go up to ND16, which I am guessing might not be enough for the bright California sun. Any input and first hand experience would be awesome!

Thanks,

Tim

Hello there Tim. Thank you for reaching out and for posting these information here at DJI Forum. Since this is a 3rd party accessory for the DJI Mini 2. I hope that you will get the best recommendation from our fellow DJI co pilot who have used the said ND Filter and share there experiences using it as well. Thank you and fly safe always.

I use the Freewell set. No vignetting as I can see and color is great (no cast). What I don't like about the set is the regular ND's only have a 4, 8 and 16. Higher is ony in combination with polar. In normal use not a big deal but last week in snow the regular ND's didn't cut it so I had to switch to the ND+PL. They are tiny and with the mini 2 I am very careful to put them on the fragile system.
But overal a very nice set and good quality.

Hi Tim,
Mini 2 camera is vigneting anyway a lot, adding a ND filter you will get also another vigneting surface...
Best filters in general comes from Polar Pro, but also Freewell is good....for Mini 2 is a limitation of filters as you cannot get ND Vario filter, but only fixed one.
As the light is changing a lot, my advice is to go to multiple of 180 degrees in order to get nice cinematic images, instead of a filter...
Put the drone at ISO 100 and 60FPS and start with 120 SS....than if is not enough go to 180 SS than 240 SS...
Make sure you make the movements of the drone very soft, as this gives you the cinematic footage, in rest you can add enough blur in post-processing.
We are working a lot with them for commercials here, I use only one PolarPro ND vario filter for MA2, in rest for Mini 2 I only use the 60fps and multiple of 60 at SS...always works and gives me also a lot of possibilities to edit, from speed ramping to steady processing....
Use the RED tool from Android to see the maximum speed of YAW and movement for your settings, will hep you avoid jitter.
Cheers.

Ive used freewell on other drones and the quality has been great.  

FB: GeoDrone4K Posted at 2-16 23:45
Hi Tim,
Mini 2 camera is vigneting anyway a lot, adding a ND filter you will get also another vigneting surface...
Best filters in general comes from Polar Pro, but also Freewell is good....for Mini 2 is a limitation of filters as you cannot get ND Vario filter, but only fixed one.

Thanks for your response! So, I’m not sure what you’re referring to with 60 FPS, as the mini in 4K will only record in 30 FPS. Are you recording in less than 4K?

AlexanderK Posted at 2-16 23:25
I use the Freewell set. No vignetting as I can see and color is great (no cast). What I don't like about the set is the regular ND's only have a 4, 8 and 16. Higher is ony in combination with polar. In normal use not a big deal but last week in snow the regular ND's didn't cut it so I had to switch to the ND+PL. They are tiny and with the mini 2 I am very careful to put them on the fragile system.
But overal a very nice set and good quality.

Thanks so much! I am leaning towards Freewell also. That’s a great video. How did you get it so smooth without the choppiness it seems to come with 4K at 30 FPS? Have you changed your advanced gimble and your settings? And if so, would you mind sharing which settings you use for each? Even when I film at 4K 30 frames per second and a shutter speed of 60, I still get jerkiness. I’m guessing that might be to do with my control of the drone itself.

Thanks again!

Polar pro is the best imo

RenegadeCowboyAZ Posted at 2-17 11:14
Polar pro is the best imo

Do they have mini two filters? I didn’t see any on their website.

I'll add to this.

Just bought the freewell. Sent right back.

I noticed on landing the drone a buzz from the gimbal.

I had tried to calibrate the gimbal with them attached, but it made no difference.

I'd powered on, all was fine, gone for a flight and on return the gimbal motors were buzzing. Tapping the gimbal and it stopped, but came back.

A couple of others have mentioned this, and it is subtle to hear, and maybe tolerances between units may mean not everyone would have this issue, but for me it was an instant return.

Of course I tested without them attached and all was back to normal.

Something to pay attention to for those that give it a go.

Also, they don't really attached very well. You have to get it just right to click, but still it is clear the mini isn't designed to have them on.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-17 11:58
Do they have mini two filters? I didn’t see any on their website.

My bad they don’t have them yet

I have a set of Skyreat filters (CPL, UV, ND8, 16, 32, 64) that are specifically made for the Mini and Mini 2 camera. They work great on the Mini, have not tried them on the Mini 2 yet.  :https://www.amazon.ca/Skyreat-Fi ... -Pack/dp/B0824V129W

TJM1989 Posted at 2-17 10:37
Thanks so much! I am leaning towards Freewell also. That’s a great video. How did you get it so smooth without the choppiness it seems to come with 4K at 30 FPS? Have you changed your advanced gimble and your settings? And if so, would you mind sharing which settings you use for each? Even when I film at 4K 30 frames per second and a shutter speed of 60, I still get jerkiness. I’m guessing that might be to do with my control of the drone itself.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the compliment! It really isn't that hard to get smooth footage. This is a PAL reagion so I shoot most of the films in 25p, this is also 25p.
With ND I can get the shutter to 1/50, And I always keep in mind the 'relative speed' of the drone in relation to the subject and andjust the speed of the drone to that. Basic tip: no fast pans and also in basic flying.... slow down a bit.
So if the distance to the subject gets larger you can fly faster.... nearby subjects (say flying over a field or water) already appears to go faster for the viewer, you can fly a bit slower.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-17 10:35
Thanks for your response! So, I’m not sure what you’re referring to with 60 FPS, as the mini in 4K will only record in 30 FPS. Are you recording in less than 4K?

You can use according to your project...we use 4K 30FPS for presentation saved at 50 MBPS flow, or FHD 60 FPS for high motions  saved at 80MBPS in order to compensate the info needed for  upscaling...
In order to have an opinion related to your problem, upload a video on youtube and put here the link.
Also, before this, put the video on a stick and play it directly using your TV, and check if you see problems.
Cheers.

If you know filters, you'd go with US made Tiffen

Keep in mind, people are biased from what they've heard, and in this day and age of 'influencers' ... they're getting paid to push a product, not push quality.  


Do your own research on each company, their history, what glass do they use for the filters?

Which company can help you resolve problems, in English?  


I use the tiffen circular filters ... I did my research, and spent the extra for quality filters.

hunterws Posted at 2-18 05:25
Keep in mind, people are biased from what they've heard, and in this day and age of 'influencers' ... they're getting paid to push a product, not push quality.  

Thank you, I am leaning towards Tiffen now.

AlexanderK Posted at 2-17 23:46
Thanks for the compliment! It really isn't that hard to get smooth footage. This is a PAL reagion so I shoot most of the films in 25p, this is also 25p.
With ND I can get the shutter to 1/50, And I always keep in mind the 'relative speed' of the drone in relation to the subject and andjust the speed of the drone to that. Basic tip: no fast pans and also in basic flying.... slow down a bit.
So if the distance to the subject gets larger you can fly faster.... nearby subjects (say flying over a field or water) already appears to go faster for the viewer, you can fly a but slower.

Thanks so much! Will take that into account on my next flight.

AlexanderK Posted at 2-17 23:46
Thanks for the compliment! It really isn't that hard to get smooth footage. This is a PAL reagion so I shoot most of the films in 25p, this is also 25p.
With ND I can get the shutter to 1/50, And I always keep in mind the 'relative speed' of the drone in relation to the subject and andjust the speed of the drone to that. Basic tip: no fast pans and also in basic flying.... slow down a bit.
So if the distance to the subject gets larger you can fly faster.... nearby subjects (say flying over a field or water) already appears to go faster for the viewer, you can fly a but slower.

Quick followup, which ND do you use on your Mini 2?

TJM1989 Posted at 2-18 09:02
Quick followup, which ND do you use on your Mini 2?

I've got the Freewell filters and am happy with them. It's not that in my area I can just test all brands etc so I can't speak about other brands etc.

And I do take the time before flying to evaluate what ND I want to use. (I have the mini 2 as a hobby device but am a professional filmer). So if I need to cut down glare I go for the ND+PL etc etc.