Decision time - Help desired: Float arms vs standard?

I'm down to the final aspects for the new gear to house a D90 with WA or macro set-up.

Nikon D90 in Nauticam housing with eyepiece

Nikon 105VR lens in Nauticam dedicated port

Tokina 11-16 2.8 with Nauticam zoom gear and Nauticam 6" acrylic port plus extension

Inon D-2000 x2 optical triggering

Probable addition for future: spotting/ dive lite on hotshoe

Possible change: 6" or 8" glass dome (If I can find one pre-owned)

Now to decide on the arms.

With this set up, should I do:

2x 8" UCLS float plus 2x 5" UCLS standard arms?

4x 8" UCLS float arms?

Other?

I would prefer to stick with one set for both ease of learning and ease of travel.

Prior photo experience is Olympus 5050 in Oly housing.

Prior dive experience is approx 50+ logged dives and 50+ unlogged in tropical (Caribbean: Jamaica, Cozumel, Turks, St. Lucia) diving. No deco/ no nitrox/ always divemaster guided.

Future dives planned:

April 2010: Cozumel to practice with all photo gear and some new dive gear in familiar environment (plus get GF on final open water dive/ certified / hooked on diving!)

May 2010: Belize

Oct 2010: Bonaire

June/July 2011: Turks

Hi,

I like the 5" and 8" combination. The geometry works out because with the 5's attached to the housing they will tuck right in and not take up a bunch of room on the camera table. This will give you plenty of length. Depending on how they are attached to the Nauticam, you may find that one 5" on each side is plenty when your shooting macro.

If you stick with The Tokina 11-16 I'd expect you'll need a +4 diopter and a fairly large extension ring. It should be interesting to play with on the new Nauticam housing. You may find it wants to rotate up on you. You might have to play with the balance a little. Unless your already commited I'd look into a Tokina 10-17 fisheye.

Good luck with it, and I hope your plan with the GF works out.

Cheers,

Steve

Do you know the in-water weight of the complete system? You may not need float arms. My D300 Nexus setup is fine with standard ULCS arms. I prefer to have my rig slightly negative so I can set it on bottom if necessary vs floating away in current. The more or larger parts you add, the more drag. Also, I would not mount anything on the housing hot shoe. Remove the fitting. If excess load is applied to hot shoe damage to the housing could result. Stuff happens. Much rather repair/replace a separate assembly than try to repair housing with broken fastener or worse.

the Inons are pretty negative so i've added the buoyancy to the top of the strobes by cutting a radius to match the battery compartment in a large 4th Generation float and strapping it on with tiewraps. with the flashes neutral, the balance of the rig isn't upset by flash position

i've come to prefer the 4th Generation Stix arms as they are light and compact to begin with and you can add just the amount of floatation you need wherever you need it

Thank you for the thoughtful input.

After further research I think that the 11-16 would work "best" behind a large dome. Even though I already own the lens, I recognize the task-loading that the D-SLR will present (above and beyond my P&S experience). I do not want to add to the complexity with a giant dome, and a potentially more difficult to use lens at the outset. Therefore, I just ordered a Tokina 10-17 which I plan to house behind a compact dome. This should also help with packing/transport.

As the whole rig is still in the "paper" stage, I have not had a chance to get an in-water weight.

Drag issues and flopping/ tearing foam is the reason I am not interested in using the StiX foam pieces. I was thinking that smooth aluminum would be the "better" choice.

I had not thought about the risk of case damage with a hot-shoe mounted light. No one seems to have brought this up before on any of the threads about focus lights but I certainly will consider that when it comes time to add the light.

Re: The GF. She will be doing her final open water dives when we go to Cozumel in April. As certification was her idea, I am very encouraged. But, I well know that there is a huge difference between "liking to swim" and electively submersing in the open ocean.

I think you'll find that the rig will have different bouyancy and balance issues depending on the port combination your using. The large domes hold a lot more air than the flat macro ports for example. I like to carry the Stix floats to use when I'm shooting macro. They are a lot tougher than they look. My rig with the dome is just about neutral with a couple of 8" UCLS float arms. Your strobes and housing could be a little different. My recommendation; don't worry about it too much for the Coz trip. Take care of the young lady first and foremost. Much more important to have a willing dive model / partner. Your wrists will tell you if you need to make an adjustment.

The Nauticam housings don't have a hot shoe mount on top of the housing. They have a clamp there. Intead they have a mount on the port base. I don't know how that will work out in practise and whether or not it could cause problems. I sure hope not since tha's what I intend to use on my new 7D when it shows up.

Have fun,

Steve

The Nauticam housings don't have a hot shoe mount on top of the housing. They have a clamp there. Intead they have a mount on the port base. I don't know how that will work out in practise and whether or not it could cause problems. I sure hope not since tha's what I intend to use on my new 7D when it shows up.