so ive been flying my Mavic Air 2S for about eight months now and the one thing i keep going back and forth on is ND filters. right now im using a cheap set i got off amazon, maybe 25 dollars for like 6 filters, and honestly they seem fine to me but everyone in these communities acts like if youre not using Polar Pro or Freewell youre basically ruining your footage.

shot some stuff at the beach last weekend and a couple clips had this weird color cast that i dont usually see, kind of purple-ish on the highlights. could be the filters could be something else entirely, i genuinely dont know. the light was pretty harsh and coming from a weird angle.

curious if anyone has actually done a proper comparison or if this is just gear snobbery. im not against spending the money if theres a real difference but i dont want to drop 80 bucks on filters if my cheap ones are doing the job fine.

Honestly I went through this exact debate. Had the cheap Amazon set for almost a year before finally caving and getting the Freewell All Day kit for my Air 2S. The difference is real but maybe not as dramatic as people make it out to be. The main thing I noticed was less color fringing and the coatings are way better at handling flare when you're shooting into the sun at an angle. That purple cast you're describing does sound like it could be a coating issue with the cheap ones, that kind of chromatic weirdness shows up more in harsh directional light.

That said I dont think cheap filters ruin footage. If youre not shooting commercially and youre happy with the results, theres no law that says you have to upgrade. I just found the Freewells nicer to work with and the color correction in post got easier.

the purple cast thing is almost definitely the filter coating, same thing happened to me with a no-name set. switched to polarpro and that specific issue went away. whether thats worth 80 dollars is a personal call but if it's bothering you in post it adds up over time