so ive had my Mavic 3 Classic for about three weeks now and honestly loving it way more than i expected. coming from a Mini 2 so everything feels like a massive upgrade. anyway my main thing right now is trying to figure out the ND filter situation. i bought one of those cheap filter sets off amazon because everyone online kept saying you need them for cinematic footage and yeah okay the 180 degree shutter rule makes sense to me in theory but im not sure i actually bought the right ones for the Classic specifically.

the set i got says its compatible with Mavic 3 but i know the Classic has a different lens setup than the regular Mavic 3 so now im second guessing myself. the filters fit physically which is something but i dont know if the coating quality matters that much at my level. also just generally when do you guys actually bother putting them on vs just shooting without, like on a cloudy overcast day do i even need them or is that more of a bright sun situation

the lens on the Classic is different from the cine version yeah but most filter sets made for Mavic 3 should be fine physically as long as they clip on correctly. the coatings do matter a bit if you're shooting into sun or dealing with reflections over water but honestly at the learning stage dont stress it too much. for overcast days i usually skip them entirely or throw on an ND4 at most, mainly because your shutter speed ends up being really slow already in low light and adding more stop reduction just makes things worse. the rule of thumb i use is if im squinting when i look up its probably filter time.

oh man i went through the exact same thing when i got mine a few months back. i actually returned my first filter set because i wasnt sure and ended up getting the Freewell ones which are specifically listed for the Classic. they werent super expensive and the difference in footage smoothness when panning is pretty noticeable. cloudy days i honestly just shoot without, saves the hassle of swapping them out before every flight.