An optical blade tracking system for a rotary wing aircraft, the system including a light source (42, 44) generating at least one light beam, the light source coupled to a rotor blade of the rotary wing aircraft, wherein movement of the rotor blade is imparted to the light source; a two-dimensional position detector (36) generating signals indicative of a position of the light beam along a first axis (x) and a position of the light beam along a second axis (y) and generating a signal indicative of an angular position of the light beam about a third axis; a processor receiving the signals, the processor determining at least one of lead-lag, flap and pitch of the rotor blade in response to the signals; and a polarizer filter positioned between the light source (42, 44) and the two dimensional position detector (36), the polarizer filter modulating intensity of the light beam onto the two-dimensional position detector.