Over-stressing the gimbal/ND Filter/Battery/Flight Question

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I've seen a few threads where people have taken off with a full battery, then come back and land with, say
60% to 70% battery left. Then when they restart for a second flight on the same battery they lose mass voltage and crash. Everyone's advice to the people that this has happened to is "don't power down the bird or rc in between flights". OK, fair enough, but here is my question. If I go up, and don't like the results I am getting with the ND Filter installed, and keeping the bird fired up, how much am I stressing the gimbal when swapping lens?
 
I'm quite sure the others are referring to flying your Phanton when the battery has been sitting for more than a day or so on less than a full charge. I don't think there's a great deal of concern or evidence that flying on a fully charged battery, landing with 75% or so and taking off again shortly thereafter is likely going to result in disaster. I'l often land after 10-12 minutes and take off again a few minutes later without ever having any trouble whatsoever.
 
There is a known bug in battery FW, hope that would get resolved soon. That was responsible for many crashes in flying with half charged batteries. There is no problem if you want to change filters etc, you can continue flight immediately after that. You will get experience with filters soon as mostly we use ND 8 or ND 16 in bright light. You can also pick the right filter on ground itself.
 
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I usually switch between 4/8/16. I've just never changed a filter while the bird/gimble is powered up. I'm worried that I could over-stress the gimbal motors.
 
Your question is about stress on the gimbal/camera stab system when changing filters with the props running? My advice is: be careful; and be gentle. Be careful and avoid the prop area (while spinning) for YOUR safety; and be gentle with the camera/filter while removing and replacing. Don't over torque the filter so it is hard to remove (easy enough to overdo) and use just enough torque with the "new" filter to keep it on the bird during THIS flight. Experience will help and filters are cheap compared to a gimbal/camera system replacement. They do take a lot and aren't as fragile as they seem; but experience is gained with hands on doing. Don't be afraid to play with it - GENTLY with power on. Less so with power off!
 
Your question is about stress on the gimbal/camera stab system when changing filters with the props running? My advice is: be careful; and be gentle. Be careful and avoid the prop area (while spinning) for YOUR safety; and be gentle with the camera/filter while removing and replacing. Don't over torque the filter so it is hard to remove (easy enough to overdo) and use just enough torque with the "new" filter to keep it on the bird during THIS flight. Experience will help and filters are cheap compared to a gimbal/camera system replacement. They do take a lot and aren't as fragile as they seem; but experience is gained with hands on doing. Don't be afraid to play with it - GENTLY with power on. Less so with power off!
Thanks for the advice! I would never think of trying to swap with the props running. Just the bird/gimbal powered. Trying to swap filters with the props running is asking to lose fingers!!
 
I just received this variable (ND-2 to ND-400) filter today ... Amazon.com: Neewer® for DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional ND2-ND400 Neutral Density Adjustable Variable Filter Made of High Definition Optical Glass (Not for DJI Phantom 3 Standard): Camera & Photo
I haven't yet tried it, but assuming it works as well as it advertises ;) it could be an answer to all that landing and swapping.
It 'looks the part' by just peering through it with my eye and rotating the outer ring.
But some actual 'in use' will tell the real story ..... TBD.

The real question is .... can the Phantom somehow use the two multi-function switches to cause a micro-servo mounted to the camera, rotate in one direction by pressing and holding one button, and in the other direction by pressing and holding the other button?

I have the ability/equipment to male up a servo mount that will balance it all, and use either a contact wheel or maybe a rubber band drive belt to rotate the filter through it's variable range, and hopefully make slow filter adjustments while in the air.
Anyway ... at the $20 price it's worth it to me, to be able to play around with it to both see if it's good enough quality to use manually, and if so ... maybe come up with a way to make it "in flight" adjustable by marrying a servo to the stock Phantom electronics. (???)
 
Price is very reasonable. Let's know the quality. I paid about $70 to get taco RC filters, hate them.
 
I just received this variable (ND-2 to ND-400) filter today ... Amazon.com: Neewer® for DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional ND2-ND400 Neutral Density Adjustable Variable Filter Made of High Definition Optical Glass (Not for DJI Phantom 3 Standard): Camera & Photo
I haven't yet tried it, but assuming it works as well as it advertises ;) it could be an answer to all that landing and swapping.
It 'looks the part' by just peering through it with my eye and rotating the outer ring.
But some actual 'in use' will tell the real story ..... TBD.

The real question is .... can the Phantom somehow use the two multi-function switches to cause a micro-servo mounted to the camera, rotate in one direction by pressing and holding one button, and in the other direction by pressing and holding the other button?

I have the ability/equipment to male up a servo mount that will balance it all, and use either a contact wheel or maybe a rubber band drive belt to rotate the filter through it's variable range, and hopefully make slow filter adjustments while in the air.
Anyway ... at the $20 price it's worth it to me, to be able to play around with it to both see if it's good enough quality to use manually, and if so ... maybe come up with a way to make it "in flight" adjustable by marrying a servo to the stock Phantom electronics. (???)
Hi , I have the neewer variable nd filter for my p3a still trying to make up my mind on this. I've had a few flights with this filter and it seems I'm getting an slightly pinkish ring in the video footage & a little bit of Orange tint at the bottom left of video, problem is I'm in the UK and the sun is very low this time of year and pretty bright, so I'm not sure if this has something to do with it. Before this I had the filters from phantom filters.com and the quality was good but found them to be a pain in the *** to clean and change in the field! Please can u tell me what you think of the neewer filters, sorry I have not got the answer to your question as you sound a lot more clued up on the technical side but your idea sounds great if you pull it off I'll pay you to do mine as well. Cheers
 
The variable filters have their place in photography but even the upmarket ones have always had issues especially on wide lenses. You will often see a kind of cross in the frame and also bear in mind it's actually two filters interacting so more glass to soften the image and more weight.
The colour balance issue can be resolved on the computer afterwards with more sophisticated software.
You will see some effect on colour balance even with good single ND Filters too, however the result is not necessarily undesirable.

I've always thought that the average phantom user really does not need ND filters even though I appreciate why they are often recommended, and clearly DJI think they are useful since they give you one for the Inspire which is basically the same camera.
If shooting an exceptional bright scene like snow on a sunny day or bright sand you might wish you had one, but it would still give acceptable result without, even just left on auto.
 

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