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 yesterday at 08:52 AM1 day 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 yesterday at 02:58 PM1 day by Nemrod

I have another dive buddy who has decided to go off the deep end with minimalism. He wants to get rid of all strobes and lights and then use AI enhanced programs to edit his photos. Not getting any deeper into that (AI) discussion, my reason for bringing it up is we either think we need lighting or we think we do not. If you think you do, then there has to be arms and cables.

We can do single arms, longer or shorter arms but if there be strobes then there be cables and joints and connections. Is there another way?

Edited yesterday at 03:39 PM1 day by Nemrod

11 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

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.

Agree, makes life a lot easier this way, new o-rings do make a difference. Putting the short arm on attached to the handles and the long arm attached to the strobe generally allows the strobe to sit on the ground when folded into an "M", seems like that should be neater and more stable. The ikelites are good strobes but there's other more compact lighter options available these days.

2 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

Agree, makes life a lot easier this way, new o-rings do make a difference. Putting the short arm on attached to the handles and the long arm attached to the strobe generally allows the strobe to sit on the ground when folded into an "M", seems like that should be neater and more stable. The ikelites are good strobes but there's other more compact lighter options available these days.

After a current-heavy trip to Galapagos about a dozen years ago I came home with super floppy arms. I had cranked them down hard so many times in the current the o-rings were shot. Fresh o-rings made a word of difference.

Then I ended up selling all of my ULCS clamps and bought all new ones for good measure. The old ones were still in good shape, but I cleaned them up and sold them for about half the cost of new ones. They were well over 10 years old. Sometimes it's just good to start fresh.

ULCS makes these or anyone handy in the shop could do something similar to convert a double or triple clamp to allow lanyard attachment to the center pivot.

https://ulcs.com/product/ac-lhc2-camera-lanyard-holder/

9 minutes ago, Nemrod said:

ULCS makes these or anyone handy in the shop could do something similar to convert a double or triple clamp to allow lanyard attachment to the center pivot.

https://ulcs.com/product/ac-lhc2-camera-lanyard-holder/

I used them for a while, and they're nice because they're cheap and can "upgrade" an existing clamp.

However, I ended up buying new clamps with an integral shackle due to a few issues. First, the lanyard metal would frequently bind with the screw so adjusting the clamp meant wiggling the lanyard holder to move things. This was most noticeable when loosening because the spring wasn't strong enough to push the metal out. Second, when I was getting out of the water and had the clamps tightened, any swaying of the lanyard would work the clamps loose enough that the (heavy) strobes could swing around and hit the housing or flop out and get much wider.

40 minutes ago, akarnani said:

I used them for a while, and they're nice because they're cheap and can "upgrade" an existing clamp.

However, I ended up buying new clamps with an integral shackle due to a few issues. First, the lanyard metal would frequently bind with the screw so adjusting the clamp meant wiggling the lanyard holder to move things. This was most noticeable when loosening because the spring wasn't strong enough to push the metal out. Second, when I was getting out of the water and had the clamps tightened, any swaying of the lanyard would work the clamps loose enough that the (heavy) strobes could swing around and hit the housing or flop out and get much wider.

I understand, that is why I too have the clamps with a shackle. And lock my arms at the center pivots with bolt snaps and at the outer to inner pivots with a bungee loop, tight or loose, my strobes cannot flail about like I see so often and with damaging results. I also beach dive often enough and need to be able to walk and enter and exit hands free.

Edited 20 hours ago20 hr by Nemrod

16 hours ago, Nemrod said:

I understand, that is why I too have the clamps with a shackle. And lock my arms at the center pivots with bolt snaps and at the outer to inner pivots with a bungee loop, tight or loose, my strobes cannot flail about like I see so often and with damaging results. I also beach dive often enough and need to be able to walk and enter and exit hands free.

Have you had any instances with the bungee loops at the end of your arms presenting any sort of entanglement issues during the dive?