Are polarised ND filters a one-time faff or an every-time faff?

Now then :slight_smile:

I’ve been reading up about polarised ND filters and watched a few YouTube vids too.

What nobody has told me though, is the angle / alignment a one-time thing? Or an every-time thing?

One YT vid showed the guy holding the filter in front of the camera and rotating the filter to get the best view / setting.

But I’m not sure if this needs to be done every time, or can you mark the filter with a notch or pen to show the best ‘top’ point?

Or does the angle / alignment change depending on the direction of the sun, direction of flight etc, therefore meaning you need to set it each and every time?

Hope this question makes sense, I’m not sure how well I explained that :blush:

The rotating is for polarising filters, some ND filters have a polariser but not all. It is to cut reflections from things like glass and water. You can also use it to make sky more vivid. So the answer to your question is both yes and no. If you just want to have vivid colours then you can leave it in position but if you want to cut out glare then you need to rotate it

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Yup, I get all that :slight_smile:

The bit I was unsure of was around the rotating of the filter before attaching it to the drone - do you need to rotate it to suit on every single flight? Or will it always be in the same position? (so you could mark ‘top’ with a pen or something?)

Or will it’s orientation be entirely dependant on where the sun is on any given day?

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If your ND filters are polerised then you need to set them every time you want to use them. So basically like Steve said, it’s to cut the light reflections off glass and water etc so depending when you fly will depend on which way the filter needs to be put on in respect to the position of the sun. If you’re flying for an hour or so up and down changing battery’s etc then I wouldn’t bother resetting the filter as not much will have changed in regards to the sun within that time.
If you flew in the AM then flew again in the PM then you’d have to set up for the PM flight.

Cheers Dan :+1:

I thought this might be the case but I couldn’t find anything that clarified it :slight_smile: