Mavic Pro 2 ND filter recommendations

Hey guys, budget is tight but I am after a set of ND filters for my mavic pro 2, I’ve seen stuff from £20 all the way to £100s from my experience of photography with my DSLR cheap is never good and good is never cheap!
I guess the question is what have you guys used / recommend using that isn’t going to break the bank
Best regards

I’ve never used a filter on the MP2.
With a DSLR you use filters to get a certain effect, graduated for sky, nice sunrise/sunset etc.
The MP1 used to have them because it was the only way to control the shutter speed and avoid ‘stutter’ and ‘motion blur’. A polarising filter was the only one that was much use, to accentuate blue sky and clouds, but again this could easily be done in post production.
With the MP2 camera you can control the shutter and aperture so it really (in my humble opinion) negates the use of expensive filters for motion blur or stutter, and I don’t think they make them yet for visual effects like you would use with a dslr .

@Brian I understand that you can control the shutter and aperture, but when you are flying in bright light, for example winter sun, low in the sky no amount of adjustments in either will give the correct exposure and will cause white out over exposure of the image. The ND (netural density) filter in effect puts sunshades on the lense allowing you to have the correct exposure and no white outs.
This is an example of white out I had recently, no amount of post editing would resolve this as the sensor simply couldn’t capture any detail, the only way I could make the image look mediocre was to bring in the paint brush and remove saturation and about 2.0 on the exposure

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I have to agree about the filters in this case. So it’s about doing a bit of research. Most YouTube reviews will be favourable to just about anything because the reviewers have had them sent to them for free so they are unlikely to give a bad review no matter what quality the product.
Speaking from personal experience of filters bought online for the MP, I would spend as much as I value my photographs. The higher end will have better optical quality. The lower end are nothing but smoked glass.

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P.S. deleted my previous post because it was incomplete.

I have been using ND filters from Freewell for my Anafi. They are quite effective and while there is a certain amount of slight softening they add, its not at all bad considering that I have been able to bring it back in Post in Premiere Pro by adding a sharpness parameter of just 8/100 points in FHD and 3-4/100 in 4K. I do know apparently there’s another brand that’s supposedly the Best glass for DJI called Polarpro but they easily go upto a 100 pounds or so. For the Anafi they anyways don’t make filters yet so I went with Freewell, which posted me about 70 quid for the Bright Day Pack of Premium filters ( they are a hybrid Polarised ND Filter set of ND8,ND16,ND32 and ND64 - pretty much needed for me to film in tropics). They also have a cheaper version of these called the Freewell “E Class” Budget series of filters which are perhaps around 45 quid for a set of 3 filters - nevertheless I wouldn’t be able to tell how well they perform.

I’ve posted this before in Videos but here’s a link of a short video I filmed using those ND filters:

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I am looking at the Polar Pro 6 Cinematic Filters for my Mavic 2 Pro, no point in by cheap ones for a Hasselblad !.
Must confess, I do find filters helpful in getting the light right, as I do not play around with my photos much.
Any thoughts on these particular filters guys?.

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Had been looking at them as owned the vivid and shutter cinema series for MP.

The PGYtech ones look good also.

I’d probably buy individualy instead of having a few I never use.

ND4 CPL, ND8 & ND16 would suit me fine.

After many many vids watched and reviews read on ND filters I opted for the new Version 2 ND and polarising filter set from SkyReat.

As a newbie I wanted strike the right balance between quality and price. At £69 they’re half the price of the PolarPro equivalent and by all accounts perform just well. There are cheaper versions again but I felt these were spot on!

They’re ND4 to 16. No doubt a 32 (poss 64 too!) will be added at a later date.

As it happens I’m replying to this post having received these as a birthday prezzie this morning from my kids :+1:!

They fit with the gimble cover on and do not affect the gimble at all. (according to the reviews! Not tried them yet Lazy birthday morning for me lol)

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Is this the set you have?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JGQ74C6/ref=asc_df_B07H24VQFT57740590/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22146&creativeASIN=B07H24VQFT&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310171959482&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10692135504342997080&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007355&hvtargid=pla-617578395727&th=1&psc=1

ND4, ND8, ND16, ND4PL, ND8PL, ND16PL

Seems a good range for UK weather.

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That’s the ones :+1: that’s where I got them from too. @callum

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Looking forward to your feedback once you’ve got some air time with them.

Amazon reviews definately seem positive.

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Ok, bit the bullet ! , decided that the polar pros would not get the use they deserve, so I have gone with the above !.
Only decision was made on the basis that my Son and his partner said they would buy them for my retirement pressy !
Good on ya Son !.
Will be waiting through the letter box when I arrive home tomorrow !

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I so rarely use the filters I have.
a) You don’t really need any for stills (aperture if I had M2P? Perhaps. But it’s not that wide to make DoF noticiable) - polarizer on rare occasions.
b) Don’t do enough video.
c) Can spend more time switching filters than flying.
d) If taking video and stills “in the same flight” - not going to come back and swap every time.
e) My middle name isn’t Spielberg - I’m never going to make a feature movie where it matters - most stills/video are for fun and personal memento.

If I had PfCO and was banging out hours of 4k for a customer I would use. But that ain’t the case and probably never will be,

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I agree Dave, just something for me to experiment with.
I need to get more into this photo/video editing next year ,I tend to be a “what you see is what you get” person
I would rather he paid £70 than £170 !,besides he not rolling in it poor lad.

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Did the ND filters arrive? have you had a play with them yet?

I took them for a spin the other day, total wrong time of day late afternoon, darkish, was in a bit of a hurry and and via the Litchi app I managed to incorrectly set the camera up. Was hasty as I was up against time whilst running a waypoint mission.

However will get the M2P again at a better time of day with where I can better balance the camera settings.

Easy enough to fit though. Quite impressed actually.

Yup, filters have arrived, but, have not had the weather to give them an airing yet.
But I am impressed with the look of them.

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Yeah they look smart, like the copper look to them. Adds a bit of bling :stuck_out_tongue:

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Just need now to get a standard CPL, just cos I have found that to be a great single filter, I have been impressed with the ones on my Air and Mavic Pro.

Had a set of the Skyreat filters delivered today.

Have you guys used yours yet?

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Not really had a chance to try them through the winter Callum,
here’s hoping that I get to try them soon with the better weather !

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