Hi all,

I am going to buy just one filter from DJI in order to see the difference on the picture and movie quality. I am between the ND8 filter and the ND16 filter. Which one do you think is the best to get as a start ?

Thanks

The filter DJI sell is ND4. It's kind of weak för real bright sun but its made of optical glass. There are some aftermarket ones in glass both ND8 and ND10 if you google. And a bunch of plastic ones, but they could  affect your video quality.

Swedrone Posted at 2015-8-12 16:58
The filter DJI sell is ND4. It's kind of weak för real bright sun but its made of optical glass. Th ...

But DJI do have and sell ND8 and ND16 filters

I plan to purchase both filters from DJI but if I only had funds for one it would be ND8.  Search the forum and you will find a lot of info about lens filters..

I just ordered the ND8 filter ....hope it will arrive soon!!!!!!!!

sotirisphoka@gm Posted at 2015-8-12 17:05
But DJI do have and sell ND8 and ND16 filters

My misstake. I can see they added 8 and 16 now, so I changed my order. Thank's for pointing it out
Yesterday I used 4 when the sun was behind clouds. Usually i go with 8 or 10. That's when filming in 4K/30 I used 1080/60 once and it was smooth but to little detail on a Thunderbolt display.

sotirisphoka@gm Posted at 2015-8-12 17:28
I just ordered the ND8 filter ....hope it will arrive soon!!!!!!!!

Greate choice. Should be fine. When extremely sunny and bright you can shorten the shutter time. Will get a bit flickery so watch out for those fast moves. When not so sunny you can increase the shutter time and even go to ISO 200. Flying without filter is only useful in the sunset or at night in my opinion.

it depends on the weather, you cant say which is more usefull. On a sunny bright summer day you need ND32, in the low evening sun i think the ND8 is pretty good. In between is the ND16. It just depends on the lighting condition

In case anyone is interested I have a PolarPro set of filters listed which includes an ND 8.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/15177761 ... d=p3984.m1586.l2649

It's the first time that I ordered and DJI sent it on the next day....whoooooooaaaaaaaa

Fulgerite Posted at 2015-8-13 22:49
In case anyone is interested I have a PolarPro set of filters listed which includes an ND 8.

http:/ ...

Adds weight even if it´s so little, and made of plastic?

Swedrone Posted at 2015-8-14 17:39
Adds weight even if it´s so little, and made of plastic?

Made of anodized aluminum and glass.

Video requires a low shutter speed. So in high end cameras shooting 24p frames per second, the shutter speed is set to 1/48th - twice the frame speed. For the P3 like most inexpensive cameras does not have 1/48 so the nearest is 1/50. This gives a nice smooth video. But this shutter speed allows more light to enter... forcing you to use a very low ISO (sensitivity to light of the sensor) and ND filters. Without ND's you are forced to use high shutter speeds such as 1/200 or 1/500 which results in choppy video and aliases.
In practical terms this means using a ND filter even on a cloudy day... say ND4 or ND8. On a average sunny days you will need min ND8 and probably ND16. In the summer in Florida ND32 is used for sunny days especially mid-day. I never film between 10am and 4pm in South Florida anyway as the light is horrible with harsh shadows.
Cheaper Gel ND's will not give best results. For that pro's use glass ND's but these are too heavy for P3's. On my work cameras I use $200 ND's (each) and a $300 variable ND... so not cheap. The best I could find that I now use are the Taco ND set which you screw on to replace the UV filter. They do not increase the weight.

Here is how I know if my ND filter is good...

Start with ISO 100, shutter 1/50:

EV between 0 and 1.0? Perfect.

EV negative: too dark, needs less ND filter.

EV greater than 1.0: too bright, needs more ND filter.

ND 8 is most useful on my experience.

If your EV is too bright and you have no darker ND filter, increase shutter speed.

emptymind Posted at 2015-8-15 01:43
Video requires a low shutter speed. So in high end cameras shooting 24p frames per second, the shutt ...

DJI now sells a full range of ND filters.  ND4, ND8 and ND16.  They are light weight glass filters that fit perfectly on the Phantom 3 cameras.

http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-3-nd4-filter
http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-3-nd8-filter
http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-3-nd16-filter