okay so my partner got me an Air 3S for my birthday which was completely unexpected and now im trying to figure out what accessories are actually worth buying vs stuff that just looks good in an amazon cart at midnight.

i keep seeing people talk about ND filters and the 180 degree shutter rule and i sort of understand the concept but im not sure how much it actually matters for the kind of stuff i film which is mostly hiking trips and some coastal stuff. like is the difference visible to a normal person watching on their phone or is it more of a filmmaker nerd thing. i dont want to spend 80 bucks on filters if im just gonna forget to swap them out anyway

im not doing anything professional, just want nice looking videos for personal use and maybe instagram. running the drone in normal mode mostly, havent really dug into the manual settings yet

honest answer ? for instagram on a phone screen most people wont notice. but once you see the difference between footage shot with proper shutter speed vs wide open in bright sun, you cant unsee it. the motion blur on moving subjects like waves or even just grass moving in the breeze looks so much more natural with an ND. coastal shooting especially, i'd say get at least an ND16 and ND64 and try it once on a sunny day. if you dont care about the difference after that then yeah forget it.

that said i'd skip the cheap no-name sets, the color cast on bad filters is a real thing. polar pro or freewell for the 3S, theyre not outrageous priced for the quality.

i got a filter set when i got my Air 3 and used them maybe three times lol. depends on your personality i think. if you're the type to actually go manual and think about settings while you're out then yeah they make a difference. if you're like me and just want to fly and enjoy the hike then auto does a pretty solid job on the 3S from what i've seen. the auto exposure on these newer dji drones is genuinely good