ND Filter Calculator – quick way to get the right filter every time

General Drone Discussion
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I’ve put together a quick short showing how I choose the correct ND filter using a light meter and a simple calculator.

Takes the guesswork out of it completely and helps stick to the 180° rule without fiddling around on location.

I’ve been using this approach more and more recently and rarely take off during the day now without a filter fitted.

If anyone wants to try it, the calculator is here:

And the full tutorials are on the website:

As always, interested to hear how others are approaching ND filters :+1: there! Before you post, have you selected the most appropriate category for your new topic? :thinking:

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Bit The Bullet & Purchased The Mavic 4 Pro ND Filters
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Thank you Paul, again really useful information

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Thanks John, really appreciate it! Glad it’s helping — there’s also a free PDF guide on the website if you haven’t seen it yet.

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Thanks for that. Very useful.

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Glad you found it useful.

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Another very useful lesson, I’ve never really got into ND filters as I’ve not really understood how they work. Mainly use a PL filter. Thanks.

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Thanks! :+1:
Honestly, I avoided ND filters for ages as well—they seem more complicated than they actually are.
Once you see how they work, it all falls into place really quickly.

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Many thanks Paul. I love your short but very informative videos.

The bit I struggle with is when you are flying in the early morning on a bright sunny day. The subject is therefore in bright sunlight on one side but almost total shadow on the other.

How do you solve this? Or is it simply a matter of filming one side, landing and swapping your filter then filming the other? I’m sure there’s an easier way but I don’t know what it is. At the moment I manually play with the EV.

What do you suggest?

Cheers,

Ian

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Thanks Ian.

Yes indeed. Plan the shots before you fly and set the camera for each individual take. You could adjust the ISO mid flight but far better to land and change the filter for best cinematic results.

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This is useful. I’ve just ordered NDs for my Neo 2, Avata 2, Mini 3 Pro and Action 4 cam.

I used to have a Fuji X100 that had internal ND filter. I took an already great camera to another level. I still regret selling it, but I simply did not use it enough.

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Great. Glad it helped. Have you seen mu ND filter calculator? This is the online version. I am currently deceloping a downloadable app which should be ready in the next day or two.

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@paulrd you could have led with this in our conflab about your video! I went and had ChatGPT vibe-code me this exact same tool afterwards :melting_face: lol.. this is great!

Even looks good on my phone.

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Haha — fair point :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

That’s actually exactly why I started working on it… I got caught out, last week, in the field with no signal and couldn’t use the calculator.

So I’m just finishing off a downloadable app style version now — should be out in the next day or two. I’ll post it here on Grey Arrows once it’s complete.

Glad you like the online one — appreciate it!

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