been flying for about 8 months now, mostly just recreational stuff on weekends, and i keep seeing people talk about ND filters like they're essential. i shoot in auto mode most of the time because honestly the footage looks fine to me and i don't really want to get into manual settings yet. my brother in law who's more into photography keeps telling me i need NDs to get the 180 degree shutter rule right and cinematic motion blur but when i watch my videos back they look ok to me. i dont know, maybe i'm not experienced enough to notice the difference? is it one of those things that becomes obvious once you try it or is it more for people who are doing professional work

honestly if your footage looks fine to you then dont stress it. the 180 shutter thing matters way more when youre doing anything that'll be edited or color graded seriously, or when you shoot in like bright midday sun and the auto mode cranks the shutter up super high and everything looks weirdly sharp and stuttery. if you fly on overcast days or mostly just keep videos for yourself you can probably hold off. that said i did notice a pretty big difference the first time i used an ND16 on a sunny day, the motion just looked smoother. but its not gonna make or break casual flying

yeah your brother in law isnt wrong but it depends what you're doing with the footage. i was in the same boat as you for a long time and then i got a cheap set off amazon just to try and the difference on a bright day was noticeable enough that i kept using them. the problem with cheap filter sets though is the color cast can be pretty bad, some of mine have this slight warmth to them thats annoying to correct in post. if you do decide to get some id spend a bit more and go Freewell or Kase rather than the random 3-pack for $15. also make sure you get the right ones for your specific drone because the mount sizes are all different, learned that the hard way