ok so ive had the mini 2 for about a year and just upgraded to the Mavic 3 Classic last month and im genuinely loving it but the ND filter situation is kind of overwhelming me. with the mini 2 i just used the polar pro filters and it was pretty straightforward but now im reading about variable NDs vs fixed NDs and some people swearing by one set and others saying theyre garbage and i honestly dont know where to start.

i mostly shoot landscape stuff, some real estate on the side. lighting conditions vary a lot because i live in the pacific northwest so overcast days are super common. does anyone have a setup that actually works well for mixed conditions without carrying like 8 filters around? also curious if the stock DJI ones are worth it or total rip off

the DJI ones are fine honestly, not the best glass in the world but they fit perfectly and you dont get any of that weird vignetting you sometimes get with third party sets especially at wider angles. for your situation with mixed PNW lighting i'd probably just grab an ND4, ND8, and ND64 as a starting point and forget the variable ones for now. variable NDs are convenient but they can introduce a cross pattern artifact when you push them to the extremes and on something as sharp as the Hasselblad sensor on the Classic it can actually be noticeable in footage.

polar pro makes a set specifically for the Mavic 3 series now btw, the Peter McKinnon edition or just the standard Cinema series. little pricier but the glass quality is noticeably better if you're doing paid work.

I went through the same thing when I got mine lol. ended up just buying a cheap set off amazon to start with just to get a feel for which densities I actually reach for, then upgraded the ones I use most to better glass. saved me from spending a lot on filters I never touch. the ND16 ended up being my most used one which I did not expect at all