Which ND filters?

Video gear
1

I have used ND filters on my mirrorless cameras for photo and video things for a few years and almost exclusively use Urth filters (used to be Gobe).

I think (pretty sure) i need some for the Flip (I don’t think the Potensic can take them) but which ones, I can find Freewell, K&F, Neewer and some ive never heard of.

Can anyone recommend some/make from personal experience?

2

I use Freewell and DJI’s own for my Mini 3 pro and Air 3. Always been good.

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3

Those three are all good. I have Freewell for my drones and GoPro but K&F for my DSLR. It’s hard to compare but if I’d known K&F did them for drones I’d probably have gone for them because the build quality of their DSLR ones are as good as Cokin IMO.

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4

Looking at the K&F ones too. How do you guage what ND filter value to use for different weather conditions ? Any rule of thumb ?

5

I believe the rule of thumb is to use whichever one gets you close to twice the frame rate of the video e.g. if you are shooting at 30fps you need close to 1/60 of a second or slightly faster to create natural motion blur in each frame and make the video look smoother.

6

It really depends on what you’re using the filter for. If you want to get an extra long shutter speed use a darker one if you’re just looking to take the glare off use a lighter one and if you’re looking at the 180° rule then use whichever one comes closest. it’s a little bit of trial and error. You may have to put different ones on and off the drone before you hit the 180° rule. But for hyperlapses if you want a really blurred movement of vehicles and things like that then use a higher one so that you get a shutter speed of half a second or up to 1 second. Same thing if you want the misty eerie effect with clouds.

7

Thanks for the replies, far too new at this for shutters speeds or 180° rules (whatever that is). Was just looking to take the glare off and tone down the highlights on a really sunny day.

Was just looking for something like…
Overcast day - None
Bright day - 8
Sunny day - 16
Extremely sunny - 32

Just a ball park start guide. I suppose the real answer is go try them all myself once they arrive !