What is your preference: an ND 8 or 16 filter ?

The Editor · Apr 1, 2015

dronie said:
Make them, and I'll buy them too.

"If you build it they will come"......

As well as this forum you should target eBay where you will easily achieve a 300 readership.
Providing you have 100% positive feedback and a good description explaining the quality etc.....they will sell.

Oh, and I should mention..... I will have a set

skylabimaging · Apr 1, 2015

Depending on how quickly you can get them out I'd definitely order a set. You're in the running with SRP though (for me at least...loved their gopro filters.)

The Editor · Apr 1, 2015

skylabimaging said:
Depending on how quickly you can get them out I'd definitely order a set. You're in the running with SRP though (for me at least...loved their gopro filters.)

+1 ......yes, the blurfix filters are great unlike Polar Pro which are total crap IMO and went straight in the trash/bin.

douglas · Apr 1, 2015

Rainbowers said:
NEWS !!!
...
Regards, Renaat

Thank you Renaat for all the hard work and correspondence! I'd love to purchase a set when they're available. ~Douglas

Chuck Lawson · Apr 1, 2015

Count me in.

Daniel Mascheck · Apr 1, 2015

Rainbowers said:
A promised to inform: our factory already can produce nd-filters down to 5 grams. Today we sent one of the DJI to let analyze and get as close as possible to 3 grams and to check the thread.

Keep you informed !

What about a polarizer?

Rainbowers · Apr 2, 2015

Thank you all for supporting !! I feel we will have this 3th time a positive result. Not easy to get our western standards here, always an issue with the final touch. Nice days are coming, hope we will enjoy a nice cinematic video.
PS: my experience for aerial video is not really a 180° (double the frame speed per second), but more towards a 90° (4 time fps speed) as the image is moving fast while flying. Hope to publish soon some video when we receive the sample filters. A 30 fps video, I should think at a shutter of 1/90-100
Best regards, Renaat.

flyingclint · Apr 2, 2015

Rainbowers said:
NEWS !!!
Almost becoming crazy to deal with the chinese factories.
History: we started with 2 factories that confirmed from the beginning "we can do it" (but that is typical chinese).
First factory, we ordered 3 filters: ND8-ND16-ND32 Conclusions: too much weight and the ND16 and ND32 bad quality.
Second factory: I suppose the filter quality would be OK, but, they have problems with the frame thread. They need to buy a german machine to cut the right screwing. Complicated.
All good things you need a 3x exercise…..
Now 3th factory, "highly" specialized in filters and coatings, all Japanese high precision machines. We talked a lot and the CEO likes to make special stuff, not ordinary filters as we find everywhere as Altura, Neewer, General Brand …. (all coming from the same chinese factories).
We sent him our dij ND4 that arrived broken, . Frame and thread for them is no problem and weight should be not neither. Firstly they tried to polish the glass to achieve the right weight, but that would become too expensive. Now they find, after analyzing the DJI one, the right solution. Glass of 0.5mm and apply the right coatings with their high tech Japanese machines. As he said the ND-grade of most chinese filters is not very precise (I agree), so not what we want ! He is excited to produce a high end product !
Listening to your requirements, we think to sell sets of ND8-16-32 (-3,-4-5 stops) with the possibility to add ND4 (-2 dij for those, as me, who haven broken) and/or ND64 (-6). Today we checked the price for sending to the US or Europe by TNT : 28 USD. This high tech set (3 filters) will be +/- 45 USD (not finished to deal, but we need to order big quantity > 300). Extra filter will be 16 USD, without change in transport.
=== shortly we will receive a sample ! === be patient, I almost gave it up, but my chinese wife luckily found this factory.
By the way, in China (always much cheaper), the price of a DJI-set is 249 RMB (40.2 USD) excl. transport for the original set (clear and ND4) at their store.
Regards, Renaat

Thanks for the update...! I think I speak for alot of other pilots on here when I say, we are all waiting on you to come through for us with some filters, since no one else seems to be taking this task on...! Can't wait to see the results and hopefully soon!!!

Thanks!

-Clint

Atlantis · Apr 2, 2015

I'm in for a set!

skylabimaging · Apr 4, 2015

Well while I await for somebody to release some actual filters. I ordered some Lee nd gels from amazon, 3 and 4 stop...good numbers to match with the included 2stop filter from DJI. Gonna find out the quality of the image with them this weekend, not expecting much.

flyingclint · Apr 4, 2015

skylabimaging said:
Well while I await for somebody to release some actual filters. I ordered some Lee nd gels from amazon, 3 and 4 stop...good numbers to match with the included 2stop filter from DJI. Gonna find out the quality of the image with them this weekend, not expecting much.

Let us know what you think (of quality) and can you post a link to the gels you ordered??? Thanks!

skylabimaging · Apr 4, 2015

flyingclint said:
Let us know what you think (of quality) and can you post a link to the gels you ordered??? Thanks!

Okay so I got some results.

6 stop filter (4stop gel with 2 stop dji filter)

8 stop filter (x2 4-stop gel with protective dji filter)

So the experiment worked (more or less) didn't have any exposure issues and it was rather sunny out. Ran these in both 4k 24 and 30p with their respective 180 degree shutter and I failed to test just a 4 stop. I used different iso settings (ideally for outdoors 100/200 is all you should use, less iso is better)...keep in mind you don't always want a 180 degree shutter for aerial, especially for fast flight following stuff a 90 degree shutter would be better. while 180 degree is a rule it's also one that can and should be broken when needed.

So you can buy the LEE ND Gels from amazon. This is the 3-stop one I bought. And this is the 4-stop one. I bought both for about 20 bucks shipped. You get a whole lot of this stuff so you'll have way more than you need. Cutting it is fairly straight forward just use the filter to make an outline and fit it in there. Stuff scratches pretty easy so take note of that. Now for me it works and I'm happy with that but this is still just a temporary solution until some actual filters come a long. Ya know the good stuff...made of glass

InspiredOne · Apr 4, 2015

Just a heads-up about gels:

Not all gels are created equal.
Not all gels cost the same.
Not all gels are optically clear.
Expensive filters are made for use in front of the lens.
Cheap gels are made for use in front of lighting instruments.

skylabimaging · Apr 4, 2015

Thanks for posting that...completely forgot to mention that stuff...yes all of those are totally correct about gels, they are typically used for lights. I chose LEE as I had used their 4x4 filters with great success and figured their gels wouldn't be half bad and no these are not optically clear whatsoever. They scratch very easily and attract your finger prints, dust, hair, anything that can get on them...the ones I used in the video I actually cut with nitrate gloves because I kept getting my finger prints on them....Like I said temp solution, but I'd rather shoot like this for now than get an overexposed image.

flyingclint · Apr 5, 2015

skylabimaging said:
Okay so I got some results.

6 stop filter (4stop gel with 2 stop dji filter)

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8 stop filter (x2 4-stop gel with protective dji filter)

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So the experiment worked (more or less) didn't have any exposure issues and it was rather sunny out. Ran these in both 4k 24 and 30p with their respective 180 degree shutter and I failed to test just a 4 stop. I used different iso settings (ideally for outdoors 100/200 is all you should use, less iso is better)...keep in mind you don't always want a 180 degree shutter for aerial, especially for fast flight following stuff a 90 degree shutter would be better. while 180 degree is a rule it's also one that can and should be broken when needed.

So you can buy the LEE ND Gels from amazon. This is the 3-stop one I bought. And this is the 4-stop one. I bought both for about 20 bucks shipped. You get a whole lot of this stuff so you'll have way more than you need. Cutting it is fairly straight forward just use the filter to make an outline and fit it in there. Stuff scratches pretty easy so take note of that. Now for me it works and I'm happy with that but this is still just a temporary solution until some actual filters come a long. Ya know the good stuff...made of glass

Excellent examples and thanks for putting in so much work to test these!

johnmont250 · Apr 5, 2015

kodak makes great photo nd gels, I would never put a lighting gel in front of any lens....

skylabimaging · Apr 5, 2015

johnmont250 said:
kodak makes great photo nd gels, I would never put a lighting gel in front of any lens....

Post up your results with the kodak ones, I'm sure we'd all like to see what others are doing and compare quality, myself included.

johnmont250 · Apr 5, 2015

sorry, i forget which combo i used. i should keep track. i think its a.90 kodak wratten, with the clear or dji nd. there is a lazy tilt shift effect on last two clips