DJI Mavic Pro aerials with Polar Pro filters to correct shutter speed

[Chris Tangey]

DJI's Mavic Pro gets a test run in Central Australia with Polar pro filters at 25P.

As many will know, the problem with lots of drone cameras is that they have a fixed aperture so to correct to the cinematic "180 rule" look you need to bring the shutter speed down to 1/50 at 25P. This is very difficult in sunshine, especially here in Outback Australia. The Polar pro kit comes with 6 filters that fit straight over the tiny Mavic Pro lens, circular polarizer, 3 stop, 4 stop and 5 stop NDs, plus 3 stop and 4 stop ND/PL combos. Between all of these you should always be able to hit the sweet spot of 1/50 second as shown here. I have also tweaked the Mavic camera settings to get rid of the annoying "moiring" the machine has straight out of the box. The Polar Pro filters are well-priced, but not without issues e.g. the Mavic consistently says the "gimbal motor is overloaded" if you don't put the filters on using the right method. I am happy to answer on any of the above.

DJI Mavic Pro with Polar pro filters 4K- Alice Springs on Vimeo

[Tim Lewis]

Really nice work, Chris. You seem to have sorted out all the issues you were wishing to ameliorate. The footage is fantastic. I always love seeing your outback scenery.

[Michael Stevenson]

Mind blowing, great work! I'm interested in your work flow.

[Chris Tangey]

Thanks Tim, yes I am actually thinking I may be able to use this thing beyond just corporates and into my higher end stuff, it's really a matter of knowing its limits which I am still figuring out! One thing I've discovered is that it's better than I expected in lowish light but ISO 800 or above is pretty much a write-off...and Michael, more than happy to answer questions on work flow :-)

[Michael Stevenson]

Ok, what is it? Settings, codecs, PC or Mac, FPS, effects, Etc.

[Chris Tangey]

Michael, I set the Mavic camera to "custom" -2, -1, -2, camera codec is of course DJI native. To fit the Polar Pro filters wait for it to initialize first otherwise it will just keep giving you "gimbal motor overload" warnings. Note that Polar Pro are releasing lightweight filter versions soon that shouldn't have this issue.
I shoot at 4K 25fps always at 1/50th and edit and colour grade in FCPX on a 64gb RAM macpro. No effects
as such, just grading tweaks which are often highlights down, shadows and saturation just lightly up. For the cumulus cloud daytime shots I was using a PL/ND filter.

[Michael Stevenson]

Originally Posted by Chris Tangey

Michael, I set the Mavic camera to "custom" -2, -1, -2, camera codec is of course DJI native. To fit the Polar Pro filters wait for it to initialize first otherwise it will just keep giving you "gimbal motor overload" warnings. Note that Polar Pro are releasing lightweight filter versions soon that shouldn't have this issue.
I shoot at 4K 25fps always at 1/50th and edit and colour grade in FCPX on a 64gb RAM macpro. No effects
as such, just grading tweaks which are often highlights down, shadows and saturation just lightly up. For the cumulus cloud daytime shots I was using a PL/ND filter.

Chris, Thanks for sharing that info. Small Round MacPro? Hard drives? The video is a amazingly rock steady and smooth. I am very impressed.

[Chris Tangey]

Michael, yes the cylinder Macpro. I'm using 2X Stardom 4X4gb arrays plus another as a physical backup located beyond the edit suite building.

It is an extraordinary gimbal/camera set up and without doing direct comparisons I suspect this little "thing", with such a small profile, is steadier than all its competitors in a serious wind. Normally if I have even the slightest bump or shake I will run the footage through a brilliant little FCPX plugin called "lock and load". I have NEVER had to do that with the Mavic footage. By the way I have made the file downloadable if you want to look at it on a large 4KTV screen.