Because the readily available 3 stop Gopro ND filters aren't enough to lower Shutter Speeds to Cine Speeds, I am getting a few 6 stop Lee ND filters made that will mount directly onto Gopro lenses.
To get more motion blur and closer to a cinematic feel.
Currently with my Hero4 and an ND9 (3stop ND) the lowest exposure I can achieve at 400iso, f2,8 is 1/1000 of a second shutter speed in direct sunlight. A 6 stop ND would get it down to 1/125th. It's still not 1/48th or 1/60th.. But definitely better than 1/1000th
I'm bouncing around the idea of getting a bunch of empty filter holders from polarpro http://polarprofilters.com/shop/DJIFilter and having some optical 6 stop ND filters ground down to snap into that filter adaptor for the gopros. Talked to Polarpro today and they would be willing to sell a bunch of these. I just need to find an optical glass company that's not gonna charge an arm and a leg to supply the glass and do the grinding. Gonna make some calls tomorrow.
I'm bouncing around the idea of getting a bunch of empty filter holders from polarpro http://polarprofilters.com/shop/DJIFilter and having some optical 6 stop ND filters ground down to snap into that filter adaptor for the gopros. Talked to Polarpro today and they would be willing to sell a bunch of these. I just need to find an optical glass company that's not gonna charge an arm and a leg to supply the glass and do the grinding. Gonna make some calls tomorrow.
Buzz, I was thinking about this a little... Tiffen makes combination polarizer and ND filters for cinema cameras.. Ideally we could fly a polarizer/ND1.2 combination filter. That would put the filter at six stops again, but would also achieve polarization.
Very true Alex, but what if the photographer wants the nice bright reflections in the scene and only wants to lower shutter speed? Personally I would rather have my cake and eat it too with the choice of a full filter pack. The other issue is weight... Two pieces of glass and its more weight and more counter weight on the other side...
My current setup is the PolarPro filter housings with my own ND glass.. the weight per filter is 5 grams.. That's about as low as I can get it... And yes the camera needs to balanced or it will drift and the stabilization won't be as solid... I use a thin piece of Velcro on the back on the gimble plate and a penny, nickel, dime and quarter with male Velcro to change the balance if needed.. It should be balanced on all three axis.
Snake River Prototyping has done some of the work for you with the Blurfix Air series of filters to fit GoPro cameras.
The filter frame that fits over the GoPro lens can be taken appart to change or stack the glass eliments.So you can easilly stack two ND4 , ND8 or whatever combination of filters you want.
Also the quality of the glass SRP use is far superior to that in the Polar Pro filters in my experience.I have used filters from both companies and SRP have always been better in both construction and image quality.
They even do a range to fit the DJI cameras on the Vision 2+,the V+ series of filters.
Also,you didn't say what frame rates your using but if you have the HERO 4 Black you could try dropping the frame rate down to 24fps,that will give you motion blur and may give the camera time to slow the shutter speed more.Something to try if you havn't already anyway.
Couple notes..
I didn't like the glass from Polarpro.. so Im using their filter holder with my own glass snapped into it from raw LEE filter glass..
The snake river stuff is too heavy for my liking.. It requires too much counter balance weight.
The majority of my stuff is shot at 30, some at 48 and some at 60 and then thrown onto a 24fps timeline... So its important that I get motion blur because of the playback speed conversion.
I'm not having any issues at all getting a slow Shutter speed, even when I'm shooting at 60.. The filters I mostly work with right now is...
Hero 4 locked at 100ISO
ND's
-2 stop for sunset/sunrise overcast and magic hour.. Clean for late magic hour.
-4 to -6 stop for anything in bright direct sunlight..
-2 1/3rd stop pola.. If I wanna get rid of reflections
-4 stop ND grad for stills against a skyscape
I will choose the ND's based off of a meter reading from my DSLR with a clean base exposure on the gopro assuming the F16 rule.. Or direct sunlight being an exposure of 100ISO, 1/125th at F16.
Also,you didn't say what frame rates your using but if you have the HERO 4 Black you could try dropping the frame rate down to 24fps,that will give you motion blur and may give the camera time to slow the shutter speed more.Something to try if you havn't already anyway.
Unfortunately, that won't make a difference, it's not really frame rate that gives you the motion blur, but (as you mentioned) shutter speed. A 24p frame rate with a 1/1000 shutter speed is going to be super crisp. The only real way to get your shutter speed low enough on a GoPro (ideally 1/48 or 1/50) is with an ND filter.
Because the readily available 3 stop Gopro ND filters aren't enough to lower Shutter Speeds to Cine Speeds, I am getting a few 6 stop Lee ND filters made that will mount directly onto Gopro lenses.
Hey everyone! I am launching a company called Indy ND filters. I have built and obtained a patent status a set of filters along with an app that tells you which filter to use to achieve cinematic shutter speeds. I am currently in negotiations with Gopro and DJI but if that falls through I will be bringing them to market in about a month. The set plus the app will be around $250-350 for the best nd glass you can get for gopros. Here are two links. A side by side and a highlight reel. Thanks
Because the readily available 3 stop Gopro ND filters aren't enough to lower Shutter Speeds to Cine Speeds, I am getting a few 6 stop Lee ND filters made that will mount directly onto Gopro lenses.
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