Best way to balance dome port?

Hi everyone

Currently shooting the Nauticam 8.5inch acrylic dome on the NA-1DX and it is very tail heavy i.e. it always tips up.

I'm sure other people have this problem and was just wondering what solutions people had come up with to balance their rigs out.

Thanks!

What strobes are you using? On my rigs the position and bouancy of the strobes/arms/floats can counteract the big dome. I've heard folks mention putting wheel weights on the bottom of the dome shroud too but haven't needed to myself.

Steve

Hi Steve

Thanks for the reply I'm using YS-D1's, will have a go at trying to balance it out with the strobes and see how that goes. Do you have to be careful about how far forward you place your strobes, as Im guessing I might need to move them quite far forward to balance it.

Thanks Olly

Hi Olly,

I think you'll find if you use floats on your arms like the Stix units, the opposite is true. You'll want to move the strobes aft behind the port, which is where they want to be for wide angle images anyway. Your D1s are 0.5 grams heavy so they aren't going to be much help, but the float arms aft will help balance the dome. The other variable is the extension you're using. A 60mm extension for a 17-40mm for example can be hard to balance out without adding some weight to the shroud. All that air on the end of that moment arm can tire your wrist out in a hurry. A shorter 20mm extension is pretty easy to balance with the floats.

Give it a try in the pool,

Steve

Thanks again Steve, I will give it a shot!

I've currently got 2 normal arms and 2 Nauticam float arms, I was using the float arms next to the housing. But now I think I will switch them around and have the float arms outboard to get a bigger moment arm on their buoyancy.

http://www.uwcamerastuff.com/dyi_dome_port_weights.htm

Another question is how neutral is your setup on a whole? perfectly balanced setup helps alot.

Regards Mark

I use one of the big Nauticam carbon fiber floating arms in the modeling light screw hole on top of the housing. This helps counter act the tendency to tip up.

http://www.uwcamerastuff.com/dyi_dome_port_weights.htm

 

Another question is how neutral is your setup on a whole? perfectly balanced setup helps alot.

 

Regards Mark

Hi Mark thanks for the link!

Well my rig is pretty much neutrally buoyant , possible very slightly negative.

But it is way out of balance, the dome port really does tip up at the moment

I use one of the big Nauticam carbon fiber floating arms in the modeling light screw hole on top of the housing. This helps counter act the tendency to tip up.

Thanks Diver Doug

Another thing to try out

Another option is an optical glass dome which would make a difference.

Or a DIY approach http://uwcamerastuff.com/dyi_dome_port_weights.htm

Another option is an optical glass dome which would make a difference.

Thanks Alex

Yes that is always an option but will try a few cheaper ones first

My glass 9.25 inch dome is VERY buoyant