ND filters - are they all the same?

[fasterpastor]

Can someone point me to a thread where there is experience in this;

Looking for an evaluation on Filters for my P4P and I2 (X5s and x4s)

Since I am looking at several sets, the costs can add up, if I don't need the "premium"

would be interested in your experience

Do I need to spend the big $$ for Polar pro ND filters- or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks in Advance!

 

[AeroMirage]

Personally, I think that Polar Pros are over rated and over priced.
I use Neewers on my I2 X5S with excellent results.
Here are links to
46mm X5S ($41.00) set: Neewer for DJI Zenmuse X5 Inspire 1 Pro Filter Set: UV+CPL+ND16+ND2-400 | eBay
X4S ($25.00) set: Neewer Gold Lens Filter Kit CPL ND4 ND8 ND16 for the DJI X4S Camera Inspire 2 | eBay
I have purchased several items from this seller. They are legit and ship immediately.

Polar Pro tipped their hand on Shark Tank where they divulged that a set that sells for $100.00 costs them $18.00.

 

[BigAl07]

Personally, I think that Polar Pros are over rated and over priced.

Polar Pro tipped their hand on Shark Tank where they divulged that a set that sells for $100.00 costs them $18.00.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed that as well. A bit over inflated on the pricing table aren't they.

I'd bet @msinger has a link to ND Filters and maybe even a review??? Worth a shot to ask him.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Personally, I think that Polar Pros are over rated and over priced.
I use Neewers on my I2 X5S with excellent results.
Here are links to
46mm X5S ($41.00) set: Neewer for DJI Zenmuse X5 Inspire 1 Pro Filter Set: UV+CPL+ND16+ND2-400 | eBay
X4S ($25.00) set: Neewer Gold Lens Filter Kit CPL ND4 ND8 ND16 for the DJI X4S Camera Inspire 2 | eBay
I have purchased several items from this seller. They are legit and ship immediately.

Polar Pro tipped their hand on Shark Tank where they divulged that a set that sells for $100.00 costs them $18.00.

I to vote for Neewer. I have a full set for my Inspire 1. They work great, no distortion and simply do what they are supposed to do, reduce light.

 

[fasterpastor]

I was actually looking at Neewer, for the reasons you both stated (the big price difference) - I will give them a try.

Thank you!!

 

[PolarPro]

Personally, I think that Polar Pros are over rated and over priced.
I use Neewers on my I2 X5S with excellent results.
Here are links to
46mm X5S ($41.00) set: Neewer for DJI Zenmuse X5 Inspire 1 Pro Filter Set: UV+CPL+ND16+ND2-400 | eBay
X4S ($25.00) set: Neewer Gold Lens Filter Kit CPL ND4 ND8 ND16 for the DJI X4S Camera Inspire 2 | eBay
I have purchased several items from this seller. They are legit and ship immediately.

Polar Pro tipped their hand on Shark Tank where they divulged that a set that sells for $100.00 costs them $18.00.

Glad you saw the show and hope you enjoyed it!
While you are correct 2 years ago (when it was filmed) we had one set with those margins, that was a plastic frame and uncoated glass.

I am happy to say two years later we have greatly increase quality and customer support as we continue to grow.

Our Inspire 2 Filters are now made out of an aircraft aluminum frame, but most importantly use an optical crown glass with an extremely low refractive index. The most important part of filter glass is the coating. Our coatings are extremely complex and keep the filters perfectly neutral throughout the entire spectrum while also reducing lens flaring and ghosting.

Not only do we use the highest quality glass and aluminum, we back it with a lifetime warranty. At the end of the day it is all up to your personal preference if you are willing to pay more for quality optics.

We are here to answer any questions as well!

-Jeff from PolarPro (the clown on Shark Tank)

 

[fasterpastor]

Glad you saw the show and hope you enjoyed it!
While you are correct 2 years ago (when it was filmed) we had one set with those margins, that was a plastic frame and uncoated glass.

I am happy to say two years later we have greatly increase quality and customer support as we continue to grow.

Our Inspire 2 Filters are now made out of an aircraft aluminum frame, but most importantly use an optical crown glass with an extremely low refractive index. The most important part of filter glass is the coating. Our coatings are extremely complex and keep the filters perfectly neutral throughout the entire spectrum while also reducing lens flaring and ghosting.

Not only do we use the highest quality glass and aluminum, we back it with a lifetime warranty. At the end of the day it is all up to your personal preference if you are willing to pay more for quality optics.

We are here to answer any questions as well!

-Jeff from PolarPro (the clown on Shark Tank)

Hi Jeff! - I have no doubt that your company makes a quality product and I did look at several options in your filters for my quads as I have been so impressed by the colors I am getting right out of the P4P, that I bought the I2 with the X5s and X4s

My company is a startup and I do have to control costs. At the end of the day we are asking, does this higher quality make a noticeable difference?

Before you are too quick to say "YES" - there are so many components to a taking good footage. Camera, timing, lens, lighting, If your filters increase my chances that is good, but sometimes a chevy will deliver a person as well as a BMW.

I was thinking of running an actual comparison to see if for your different shots, where the different product makes a notifiable difference. or in what types of shots it really matters. In using the P4P with the new sensor, it works great for me MOST of the time, but there is ONE type of shot, that I notice, I need a "real" lens for IMHO.

Thanks for contributing Jeff ! - good to hear from you

 

[PolarPro]

Hi Jeff! - I have no doubt that your company makes a quality product and I did look at several options in your filters for my quads as I have been so impressed by the colors I am getting right out of the P4P, that I bought the I2 with the X5s and X4s

My company is a startup and I do have to control costs. At the end of the day we are asking, does this higher quality make a noticeable difference?

Before you are too quick to say "YES" - there are so many components to a taking good footage. Camera, timing, lens, lighting, If your filters increase my chances that is good, but sometimes a chevy will deliver a person as well as a BMW.

I was thinking of running an actual comparison to see if for your different shots, where the different product makes a notifiable difference. or in what types of shots it really matters. In using the P4P with the new sensor, it works great for me MOST of the time, but there is ONE type of shot, that I notice, I need a "real" lens for IMHO.

Thanks for contributing Jeff ! - good to hear from you

It really comes down to your personal preference and expectations.

The X5s is a very nice camera crafted with very high-end optical glass.
If you put cheap filter glass in front of it, it will only degrade image quality.
Now some people may not be able to see any degradation if they are just uploading in 1080 to Facebook with severe compression. If you are in the production world and punching in on 4K, 5K, or 6K footage you will see degradation with inferior glass.

The other component no one has shed any light on is color shift. Cheap ND filters will cause color shift because of the manufacturing process. Color shift can sometimes be corrected in post but it is extra work for you.

It all really comes down what type of glass you want to put in front of your camera lens.

To answer your question, yes I can tell the difference in reduced lens flaring, minor degradation, and color shifting in other less expensive filters I have competitively tested against.

For example on our last shoot in Iceland was a once in a lifetime trip, when time and resources are limited getting it right the first time is important, so of course we wanted a nice high quality filter in front of our cameras. Check out the video (mainly shot with the I2 mixed with Mavic and P4P):

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-Jeff from PolarPro

 

[fasterpastor]

It really comes down to your personal preference and expectations.

The X5s is a very nice camera crafted with very high-end optical glass.
If you put cheap filter glass in front of it, it will only degrade image quality.
Now some people may not be able to see any degradation if they are just uploading in 1080 to Facebook with severe compression. If you are in the production world and punching in on 4K, 5K, or 6K footage you will see degradation with inferior glass.

The other component no one has shed any light on is color shift. Cheap ND filters will cause color shift because of the manufacturing process. Color shift can sometimes be corrected in post but it is extra work for you.

It all really comes down what type of glass you want to put in front of your camera lens.

To answer your question, yes I can tell the difference in reduced lens flaring, minor degradation, and color shifting in other less expensive filters I have competitively tested against.

For example on our last shoot in Iceland was a once in a lifetime trip, when time and resources are limited getting it right the first time is important, so of course we wanted a nice high quality filter in front of our cameras. Check out the video (mainly shot with the I2 mixed with Mavic and P4P):

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

-Jeff from PolarPro

Hey Jeff I think it is great that you are involved at this level

At the same time, my hope here was to hear from content creators as I always like to hear from the people "in the trenches" as I find that the people who have the most use time with products can with speak the most authority about them.

I may buy a set and run a comparison myself, since almost all of my demand for my work is currently at 1080p, (even though I shoot at 4k 60) it would be curious to see if there is a differentiating difference at this level.

Thanks for your input.

 

[PolarPro]

Hey Jeff I think it is great that you are involved at this level

At the same time, my hope here was to hear from content creators as I always like to hear from the people "in the trenches" as I find that the people who have the most use time with products can with speak the most authority about them.

I may buy a set and run a comparison myself, since almost all of my demand for my work is currently at 1080p, (even though I shoot at 4k 60) it would be curious to see if there is a differentiating difference at this level.

Thanks for your input.

Awesome, well thank you very much for supporting our brand!

I wouldn't consider myself in the trenches, but I shoot a solid 20 hrs /week with the Inspire2 or P4P

-Jeff from PolarPro

 

[fasterpastor]

Awesome, well thank you very much for supporting our brand!

I wouldn't consider myself in the trenches, but I shoot a solid 20 hrs /week with the Inspire2 or P4P

-Jeff from PolarPro

If you shoot that much, you are in the trenches!!

God Bless!, look me up if you are even in Chicago!

 

[Phillip DeVore]

Can someone point me to a thread where there is experience in this;

Looking for an evaluation on Filters for my P4P and I2 (X5s and x4s)

Since I am looking at several sets, the costs can add up, if I don't need the "premium"

would be interested in your experience

Do I need to spend the big $$ for Polar pro ND filters- or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks in Advance!

I agree with the other gentleman that the Polar Pros are overrated. I use the Neewer brand also for my Inspire 2 x4s and I believe that they work just fine. I have ND 4,8,16 & CPL filters and depending on the amount of sunlight I find them to be more than adequate. I’m hoping to upgrade to the X7 when I have the money but by that time they will probably have come out with another model!! But as they say more will be revealed. Hope this helps you make your decisions. Also DJI isn’t doing themselves any favors by not having adequate customer service which I believe will come back to bite them in the long run.
There are a lot of companies nipping at their heels when it comes to putting out new ones to give them some competition. I only hope that they will.
PD

 

[Phillip DeVore]

I agree with the other gentleman that the Polar Pros are overrated. I use the Neewer brand also for my Inspire 2 x4s and I believe that they work just fine. I have ND 4,8,16 & CPL filters and depending on the amount of sunlight I find them to be more than adequate. I’m hoping to upgrade to the X7 when I have the money but by that time they will probably have come out with another model!! But as they say more will be revealed. Hope this helps you make your decisions. Also DJI isn’t doing themselves any favors by not having adequate customer service which I believe will come back to bite them in the long run.
There are a lot of companies nipping at their heels when it comes to putting out new ones to give them some competition. I only hope that they will.
PD

I purchased them from Amazon.

 

[fasterpastor]

I appreciate the input, I did get one set of Neweer, I may get one set of PP to compare just to see. Thanks !

Dean

 

[Casey53]

Right now, the photo industry reviewers consider the Breakthrough brand ( X4 Neutral Density ) as the most color neutral as well as sharpest filter out there. I use them on my Olympus MFT camera in the 46mm thread size as well as on the X5S. I bought their 3 and 6 stop ND-X4 ones. I've notice less flare on the Olympus since I use them sans a hood since they are multi-coated for that as well. Pretty durable as well in the elements. Nicely finished, very thin, and in brass frames.

....Just not cheap at $139 and $149 each.

 

[gazza95]

Having tried a cheap ND filter I am cautious about what to by. This issue I saw was a colour shift due to infa red not being properly filtered. The effect I saw was that green of trees had a different colour profiles to green objects.... This made it impossible to get nice looking colours.

None of the reviews mention how well infra red is controlled.

 

[fasterpastor]

Having tried a cheap ND filter I am cautious about what to by. This issue I saw was a colour shift due to infa red not being properly filtered. The effect I saw was that green of trees had a different colour profiles to green objects.... This made it impossible to get nice looking colours.

None of the reviews mention how well infra red is controlled.

There were two issues I was hoping to get input from the users, one was color shift, the other was clarity, and long term durability (OK three issues!!)

 

[gazza95]

As the only time I would use an ND filter is for video I was not too concerned about clarity. A moving subject shot at 1/100 second or so
will always be blurred.

 

[Dobmatt]

Do I need to spend the big $$ for Polar pro ND filters- or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks in Advance!

No, they're definitely not the same. Despite the name, Neutral Density filters are introducing coloration into image, more or less. You may find some information here:

Sorry, Polar Pro guys ...

However, criticized Polar Pro filters used in this comparison were made probably sometime around mid 2015. A set of PP Cinema Vivid filters I've purchased recently for my P4P seems to perform much better with manageable image coloration. As for my X5 camera I end up with a set of Firecrest filters, since B&W filters are a bit too heavy to balance. They're fine, but not perfect. Honestly, I haven't seen any truly neutral ND filter by far ...

 

[fasterpastor]

No, they're definitely not the same. Despite the name, Neutral Density filters are introducing coloration into image, more or less. You may find some information here:

Sorry, Polar Pro guys ...

However, criticized Polar Pro filters used in this comparison were made probably sometime around mid 2015. A set of PP Cinema Vivid filters I've purchased recently for my P4P seems to perform much better with manageable image coloration. As for my X5 camera I end up with a set of Firecrest filters, since B&W filters are a bit too heavy to balance. They're fine, but not perfect. Honestly, I haven't seen any truly neutral ND filter by far ...

I Knew someone had done some research here, thank you for a more in-depth look!!