Hi, I've decided to purchase the Aquatica TLC strobe arms for my Aquatica D200 housing and need some advice on which model to choose. I will be starting out using a single arm with an Ikelite DS-125 strobe and will only be doing WA work with large pelagic species. My choices for the arms are as follows.
4" lower x 8" middle x 4" upper
4" lower x 8" middle x 8" upper
4" lower x 11" middle x 11" upper
My thought would be the last one for WA work of large fish. I would greatly appreciate any input , recommedations or whatever.
Later,
Matt
I forgot to mention, I would also appreciate some advice on what combinations to use for dual strobe WA, close up and macro since I will be venturing into those in the near future.
Matt
Is your heart set on TLC arms? I would go with ultralight arms - I realize that they are more expensive, but they work wonderfully. Most other arms that I've encountered (including the TLC arms) drift - ULCS arms don't move once you put them where you want them.
Ultralights could be a consideration. I still need to know about what arm lengths would best suit WA work. I'm looking at the Aquatica TLC because I'm really happy with the build of my housing and the arms look as if they're built just as well. Plus, I can get an awesome deal on them.
I'd suggest 2x8" or 1x8"+1x11" for WA work. Not sure why you'd want to use 3 arm segments: more things to adjust, more risk of something moving out of place...
I have one 4-8-8 for reeallly wide angle stuff in the blue. This is a pretty long arm and i most often use 2 4-8-4 arms
I find this is plenty long, cuts down on packing size, and you could use it for Macro as well. I guess some people would say its not long enough, but I like it.
Thanks for the input everyone. I kind of have an idea now.
Later,
Matt
Might be a bit late, but my most versatile set up has been 4-8-8-4, the DS125 is quite small and light and will be easily supported by this combination. I've never found more joints to be a problem. Most arms are reasonably made these days - look for ones with 25mm/1" balls - these will interchange. FYI some manufacturers produce better flash adapter fittings than others and it can be worth sourcing the most effective adapter and fitting it to another maker's arm. The same is true of the housing fitting - some bolt on balls are very low and can be left on the housing - I'm not a fan of these but some people find them to be great. Its well worth looking through various manufacturer's web sites to see what is available.
It's never to late. Thanks for the advice, it's something I'll have to look into to.
