I'm in the middle of upgrading housing (first dives this week) and next task will be strobes and arms. BUT im currently stuck with my old setup.

I find it VERY bulky and messy, especially "folded" (it doesn't - it flops). Its huge, its bulky, its negative. They're DS161s from Ikelite.

I currently have:

2 x 8" Float arms

2 x 7" normal arms

2 x 4"ish normal arms

I use 2 x SUPE video lights on a 3 way elbow mid arm.

This is my WA setup for a Tokina 10-17 on APS-C to give FOV ideas. Its bulky, messy and due to 10 year old clamps, floppy.

For my wide angle, am i better off keeping this setup OR make it neater by replacing the 7" normal size arms with my 5" arms i found in a cupboard (so 1 x 8 and 1 x 5 per side).

Are there any real trade-offs for WA here vs improved in neatness?

Now I've gone mirrorless the abomination of strobe wiring and arms is even more obvious.

Pictures are the 8" and 4" on the WA setup. Can see its not neat at all, especially when "stowed" and holding the camera by the rope it just flops forward off balance. No easy way to carry. I find it ridiculously ungainly and so do boat crew trying to handle it.

So sugestions:

(i) best compromise WA arm length combo

(ii) Best order of arms and clamps to make it usable U/W but also neater to stow/fold.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Rich W

Replace the orings on your arms so they don't flop around.

Put the carry lanyard at the top of the first arm segments so you can carry it all without anything flopping over.

I like my carry handle to be on the center pivot with a "M" set up. So why do I have the additional bolt snaps? They lock the arms together at the upper pivot. The strobes are locked in at the outer pivot to the inner with bungee. Thus when folded up the rig is a secure package for handling especially when the crew has it handing off, no flailing about of the arms whacking the strobes about.

I have at least two regular dive buddies that use TG cameras. Both have three strobes and two video lights. One of them has two YSD3 on the outer arms, two high power video lights, triple clamps and over the top an Atom strobe! They cannot even get their rigs into the rinse basin yet mine slips right in neatly. And they try to call me out for the "huge" camera rig and I repeatedly point out that mine fits in a Sams bag and theirs need a porter! One of their issues in addition to multiples strobes and video lights is that they are using a single arms which makes folding up compactly a challenge for them.

Rigged as shown below your rig will not flop about. And I can set it up to clip off to my shoulder D rings and center crotch scooter ring. The two center pivot bolt snaps in such case go to each D ring, and the lanyard is wrapped around the lower grip intersection and off to the scooter ring. Configured so the rig is held flat to my chest and will not swing and flop about for beach entry/exit or even arms free climbing the boarding ladder with the camera still in my keep.

I do not shoot video and have no interest in video at all. But, I did get my new strobes with the video lights (for potential resale). But for those who try to do everything, combo strobes with built in video lights might be one way to get rid of two video lights cluttering up the rig?

Edited 38 minutes ago38 min by Nemrod