Detailed comparison of commonly used ND filters

Nejkoy · Apr 21, 2016

Ok. Please share your test with filters.

Bill Golson · May 3, 2016

Bought this (pictured) ND filter off Amazon -- anyone familiar with the Luckybird branding. Otherwise looks like DJI packaging. A bit late but -- any good?

JayS_CT · Jun 4, 2016

Excellent article and a good conversation thread. I also have the Neewer 4 pack of 4, 8, 16 and 32 PL/ND. Very nice design.. Color accuracy (as you can see from OP test is excellent). For those interested in color, assuming a totally neutral gray background (and I'm assuming the OP used the same background and exposure for all these).. First.. measuring color.. On a Mac, in the utilities folder is a tool called Digital Color Meter. It allows you to pick a sampling point and see the Red/Green/Blue (RGB) values. Some quick basics.. White is 255, 255, 255.. Black is 0,0,0.. Most photographers use an 18% grey card (Neutral Gray) to set White Balance (if doing manual WB before hand). That would result in a reading of 52, 52, 52 (about). The OP's gray background is measuring higher (using sRGB), but that isn't as critical as what the measurements all read for Red Green and Blue.

If we start with the DJI UV, the values are 148, 148, 140.. (I'm on a calibrated monitor - YMMV) .. The DJI ND 8 are 134, 135, 128.. Again all very close to one another in keeping the gray card gray. Now compare all the other backgrounds by each brand of filter. Some (like Polar Pro ND-8 Screw on and SRP ND 16/CP) are very lacking in Blue (compared to Red and Green) which is why they look so much "warmer".. The Neewer do an excellent job on color balance, as do the Anbee and DJI.. others too are close, but I'm looking for only single digit differences between RGB and numbers that and that are relative to the ND value of the filter. Since the OP was showing the effect of ND, the RGB values will reduce vs. the UV filter because the amount of "gray" is being reduced (assuming the OP used the same exposure - which it appears he did)... The "grays" should start to lean toward more black (again 0,0,0)...

Where my concern is (and the OP addresses it as well) is weight. Only the Anbee and Taco are the same as DJI - they also have very good RGB numbers.. Neewer doubles up on DJI weight, and the rest from there. I have a question out to DJI about how much "additional" weight are the motors supposed to be able to handle. Counterbalancing actually adds more TOTAL weight to the other motors.. So it's a balance (until I get an answer - hopefully) of color rendition, ND purity, and weight (and cost)..

If you shoot in RAW and use an editor, color correction can be done, as can exposure, etc. but it's always better to get it right in the camera vs. post production.. With certain products you can color correct a whole video, but again you always want to get it right before editing.

David P3 · Jul 2, 2016

THIS IS THE KIND OF INFORMATION DJI SHOULD BE PUTTING IN FRONT OF US ALONG WITH OTHER ADD-ONS AVAILABLE.

JayS_CT · Jul 2, 2016

Never got an official reply from DJI, but I did pick up a DJI ND8 and ND16.. The case is very thin..almost seems like it can be bent out of round very easily so take care if you use these. These offer no Polarization, just ND.. Polarization (as in the Neewer for example) greatly enhance color when used correctly, which is typically at 90 degree to the sun.. meaning north - south with sunrise/sunset filming.. Also 360 color improveretment with sun overhead or slightly off overhead. You'll get the idea with trial. The other thing I noticed though is that the Neewer are darker.. almost a full stop.. meaning their ND4 is like a DJI ND8. Since we're using ND to try to get to 1/60th of a second shutter speed (assuming 30 FPS) for that smooth cinematic effect, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. The Neewer are also circular polarizers, meaning when rotated the amount of polarization can be varied given the lighting conditions. That's a plus, except they give you no reference point on the rotating rings but on a similar note, DJI doesn't even mark the ring with what ND level the filters are, so you have to do that yourself with a permanent marker unless you keep them totally separated from each other. What I did with the neewer was to find that "darkest" point, and made a permanent line across both rings with a Silver fine tip Sharpie so I can set it beforehand.

Hope this helps everyone a little with this ND decision.. Am keeping both the Neewer set and the two DJI I have for now..

beegee · Jul 3, 2016

Color pollution is a common problem with cheap nd filters. Someone bothered to shoot a test with the Taco RC filters, and they were very clean, so I bought the 4 filter set and zipped case. Very happy

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Pumpfixer · Jul 3, 2016

Anyone help tell me the difference between these 2 sets? I dont know all that much about filters.

TACO-RC Double Sided Multi-Coating ND/PL Polarizer filters set (ND4/8/16/32) for DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Free Shipping

TACO-RC Multi-Coating MC ND filters set (ND4/8/16/32) for DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Free Shipping

Thanks

JayS_CT · Jul 3, 2016

beegee said:
Color pollution is a common problem with cheap nd filters. Someone bothered to shoot a test with the Taco RC filters, and they were very clean, so I bought the 4 filter set and zipped case. Very happy

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Agreed.. That's why I used the Mac app ColorPicker to break things down to the RGB numbers. Interestingly none of them showed all 3 numbers the same, which a good neutral density should do, but several were very close. The Neewer also have an Polarizing coating and still maintained good color rendition.

JayS_CT · Jul 3, 2016

Pumpfixer said:
Anyone help tell me the difference between these 2 sets? I dont know all that much about filters.

TACO-RC Double Sided Multi-Coating ND/PL Polarizer filters set (ND4/8/16/32) for DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Free Shipping

TACO-RC Multi-Coating MC ND filters set (ND4/8/16/32) for DJI Phantom 3 Professional Advance Free Shipping

Thanks

One set are only ND coated while the other is both ND and Polarized. See some of my comments regarding Polarization. The Neewer set are also Circular Polarizers.. Suggest you google Circular Polarizer and understand how they work. Polarizers are excellent for improving color, especially blue skies, greens of trees, plants, etc. and are very effective when used with proper sun angle. ND Filters serve the purpose of "lowering" the amount of light hitting the sensor and that is their only purpose. They should not adjust color, though poorer quality ones will, generally to a "warmer" look. The goal of using an ND filter is to allow you to use a slower shutter speed on the drone's camera (manual mode) for a smoother video.. Rule of thumb is if you are shooting at 30 FPS, then use 1/60th of a second for shutter speed. Hope this helps!!!

Pumpfixer · Jul 3, 2016

JayS_CT said:
One set are only ND coated while the other is both ND and Polarized. See some of my comments regarding Polarization. The Neewer set are also Circular Polarizers.. Suggest you google Circular Polarizer and understand how they work. Polarizers are excellent for improving color, especially blue skies, greens of trees, plants, etc. and are very effective when used with proper sun angle. ND Filters serve the purpose of "lowering" the amount of light hitting the sensor and that is their only purpose. They should not adjust color, though poorer quality ones will, generally to a "warmer" look. The goal of using an ND filter is to allow you to use a slower shutter speed on the drone's camera (manual mode) for a smoother video.. Rule of thumb is if you are shooting at 30 FPS, then use 1/60th of a second for shutter speed. Hope this helps!!!

It does help. So the set thats polarized will help lower shutter speeed and get better skies and tree color? Seems like a no brainer then?

JayS_CT · Jul 3, 2016

Pumpfixer said:
It does help. So the set thats polarized will help lower shutter speeed and get better skies and tree color? Seems like a no brainer then?

Would seem.

But do understand how to get the best from Circular Polarizers.. Angle to the sun has a large effect.. So, for example, for sunrise/sunset, the greatest effect is usually achieved with flights (or camera facing) 90 degrees from the sun (so basically pointing North-South).. Also when the sun is overhead.

I'm not sure if the Taco are push on or screw on. You want Screw on. They looks almost identical to the Neewer which are about half the price. Not choosing.. Taco have a great reputation certainly...

Jay S.

m0j0 · Jul 3, 2016

When you buy the Taco RCs they throw in the case as mentioned in the review but they also throw in the gimbal holder/lens cover. Pretty nice.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Jul 3, 2016

msinger said:
Detailed comparison of commonly used ND filters (for the Phantom 3 & Phantom 4)

Nice post. I somehow didn't see this until today.

I have the PolarPro set, so I was surprised at the color-cast I see with the ND-8. If the shots are done with a neutral gray card (to the right of the Motor Trend magazine), then the PP ND-8 has a definite yellow (or muted mustard) tint, as does the SRP ND16. I also see the tint in the white area of the "Trend" letters in the magazine.

So I have one question: are you for sure using he same static WB setting, not auto?

Thanks,
Chris

msinger · Jul 3, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
are you for sure using he same static WB setting, not auto?

Correct -- I did not use auto. I would imagine the color would be very close if you edited all of the photos. They are straight off the camera above.

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Jul 3, 2016

Rats. It look like I'll have to carry around a gray card around me if I want to correct for color-cast in post (which may not always be required).

JayS_CT · Jul 3, 2016

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
Rats. It look like I'll have to carry around a gray card around me if I want to correct for color-cast in post (which may not always be required).

Don't feel bad.. Pretty common for ND filters (worse for variable ND filters), even DSLR size ones. Best way to test is to pick up an 18% neutral gray card, use the same lighting for any tests and measure RGB of image. The numbers should all be close as possible. If using an 18% card, values should measure something along the following:

In a linear gamma space this makes an RGB of 0.2 x 255 = 51
In a 2.2 gamma space such as Adobe RGB it is (51/255)^(1/2.2) x 255 = 123

Just depends on the working space you're using... The numbers I referenced in an earlier post were based on the assumption the OP didn't use auto WB...

Don't know if it would help, but you could always get a hold of PP and tell them the results you're seeing.. See what they say. They should be testing themselves for neutral color before marketing.. Shouldn't be something you have to do to find out the optical and photographic quality of something you buy with all good intent. That is unless they want to put an asterisk that says their filters lean to the warm side..

JayS_CT · Jul 17, 2016

Several images with Neewer ND 4/PL screw on filter. ISO 100, Shutter Speed 80, adjusted EV... Facing some different directions. Love the impact that PL adds..

103_DJI_0006

JayS_CT
Jul 17, 2016

102_DJI_0005

JayS_CT
Jul 17, 2016

101_DJI_0004

JayS_CT
Jul 17, 2016

100_DJI_0003

JayS_CT
Jul 17, 2016

Beantown87 · Oct 16, 2016

Thanks for taking the time to write this! Much appreciated.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Richard R · Oct 16, 2016

m0j0 said:
That's what I use I like them. No issues

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

I too am happy with my Taco filters and the hard case with cutouts packs nicely in my travel case

Richard R · Oct 16, 2016

JayS_CT said:
Would seem. But do understand how to get the best from Circular Polarizers.. Angle to the sun has a large effect.. So, for example, for sunrise/sunset, the greatest effect is usually achieved with flights (or camera facing) 90 degrees from the sun (so basically pointing North-South).. Also when the sun is overhead.

I'm not sure if the Taco are push on or screw on. You want Screw on. They looks almost identical to the Neewer which are about half the price. Not choosing.. Taco have a great reputation certainly...

Jay S.

Tacos are definitely screw on and they fit very nicely.