Hi Guys

hopefully someone can help me..

I did some testsing with Nd Filters on my P4 this weekend and noticed that using my ND32 Filter on a very bright sunny day the Video quality turns to mush
compared with my ND8 Filter.

Settings for both videos are the same, 4k, 30FPS, Shutter 60, Iso 100. -1 -1 -1 and DJIColour (None) style setting.

I appreciate with the  ND32 filter that the colors and contrast are muted and can be fixed in post however i see noise and artifacts on that video
compared to the Sharper clearer ND8.

Neither video is colour graded. Both filters are clean and almost New.

I found better video quality by not using my ND filters! I produced a side by side test .
The video on the right is without any filters

maybe so, i think however in certain lighting conditions ND filters are very necessary, in the bright sunlight i was flying in without any filters would be completely over exposed.. but the ND32 filter maybe was too much, possibly a ND16 was the answer.

ND filters are just dark glasses to fit your lens.
The ND32 is quite a bit darker than the ND8.
You've underexposed your video by using a filter that is too dark for your settings.

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2017-10-30 02:00
I found better video quality by not using my ND filters! I produced a side by side test .https://youtu.be/dslbxoTB_84
The video on the right is without any filters

What were your shutterspeed / ISO on both?

1/60th is your optimal shutterspeed to get motion that looks 'natural' due to some motion blur.
Since there is not much movement in your frame, you actually don't need the 1/60 shutterspeed per se.
The ND8 looks a bit over exposed to my eye and the ND32 a bit under exposed.
Judging by these two, I would say you would have been better off using ND16 possibly with polarizer for the reflections in water and trees.
But only if you are planning to have some motion in the shot that will look too crispy on faster shutterspeed.

What did your EV show after you equipped the filters?

ND32 is too dark for your settings. Change to ND16, you may get better effect.

thanks for the replies guys i will try the ND16 filter

Montfrooij Posted at 2017-10-30 11:07
What were your shutterspeed / ISO on both?

It has been over a year since I conducted this test and I don't remember what those values where. I do know that I did set those values manually and are both the same.

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2017-10-31 01:50
It has been over a year since I conducted this test and I don't remember what those values where. I do know that I did set those values manually and are both the same.

It would have been a miracle if you still remembered
I see quite a lot of posts about ND filters and also some misunderstandings about their usage.
I so far have not seen a drone video that shows a better result WITH ND filters.
I am sure there is an improvement in some situations (when you need that motion blur to get a more natural look), but I for sure would like to see that with my own eyes.

In your example, it looks like the shutterspeed was still not low enough to compensate for the movement. It still stutters in the left video when there is faster movement.
I am in the process of selecting my first drone, so hopefully I can test it out myself someday.