Talk to me about strobe arms!

G'day all,

The process of gearing up continues, and I've been reading as much as I can about strobe arms this weekend.

I'm looking at mounting dual DS-125's on and Ikelite housing in the near future.

I currently have a crappy cheap Ikelite arm (no offence, Ike!) for my DS-50. I'm talking about the non-ball joint model.

From what I've read here and elsewhere, I'm inclined to go with either ULCS arms, or the 1-inch diameter ball-joint arm systems from Ikelite.

There seems to be a lot of fans of the ULCS system on these boards.

The ikelite ball-joint system is slightly cheaper (say $160 instead of $215). It will obviously function well with the release handle system on the housing. The ikelite system also has an extended mount at the handles available that I think would work well for attaching the manual Ev controllers.

I'll be shooting a 50/50 mix of wide angle and macro.

I'd be interested to hear about wetpixel members experiences with regards to the strobe arms they're currently using, and any other thoughts about strobe arms you feel likel sharing!

I have the TTL housing and shoot mostly wide angle with a dome. I found the standard issue Ikelite arms a little on the short side when trying to shoot past particles in the water.

So I added a set of 1 1/4" arms to the handle with a 1 1/4' to 1" adapter to continue with the 1" arms. I like this setup because I can set the first set of arms in a basically locked down condition which means I only have to adjust the outboard arms.

As far as the arms are concerned they stay put underwater and are easy to move when I want to reposition them.

Peter, thanks for posting the picture of your setup.

Why did you use 1 1/4 inch arms rather than just another segment of one inch arm?

I shoot in an area with lots of particulate matter in the water, so the idea of extra strobe reaqch is appealing.

Does anyone else wish to share their setup and the pros and cons of it?

Cheers,

Rob

Until recently I had a miz of ULCS and Ikelite 1" ball arms, which were interchangeable. Over time I've standardized on ULCS arms / clamps / adaptors. I use two 8" arm segments for each strobe, with ULCS ball mounts for the DS-125. The one component I'm less than thrilled with is the dovetail adaptor I use to attach the arms to my S&S housing. I didn't relplace the dovetail with the hard mounted ULCS adapters because I wanted to be able to quickly detach the arms, but the set screw that holds the arms in does frequently vibrate loose. I really wish I had a quick release adapter for the arms like with the Ikelite system.

One minor nit with the Ikelite system is that there is a small plastic retention nut that needs to be either loosened or removed in order to disassemble the arms from the clamps. If you remove it permanently, the clamps behave exactly as teh ULCS versions do. If not, the arms are somewhat more difficult to assemble and break down.

Other than the attachment point I'm pretty happy overall with the system I have.

Tom

The ULCS, TLC, the new sea and sea, and i think the new Ikelite all come in pretty much a standard size these days, therefore they are all interchangeable. Personally i use TLC and i love em.

Most improtant, especially if shooting macro as well as WA is to have multiple arms set up. I think a good set up would be 4 inch arms and then a longer arm as well, 12 inch is good but shorter would probably be better for you at first.

If you like to shoot close focus wide angle you need to get the strobes into some fairly strange positions, thats why you want a two part arm as opposed to one long arm.

Watch out for strong currents though, i have had my strobes come back and hit me in the face on occassion in the strong reef hook dives in Palau and Tahiti...

Re "Why did you use 1 1/4 inch arms rather than just another segment of one inch arm? "

"I like this setup because I can set the first set of arms in a basically locked down condition which means I only have to adjust the outboard arms."

This works because the 1 1/4" balls have more holding power than the 1" balls.

Stated another way, if I used 1" for all the joints I would have more degrees of freedom than I care to deal with when deploying my strobes in the water.

I got the 5"/8" arms with my Aquatica A300 housing and Dual DS-125. They are a almost perfect combination for macro and wide angle. Give Ryan Canon a call at Underwatercamerapros.

Ditto on curtisleo's post - I've also got the TLC 5"/8" arms on DS-125's and I love 'em. I've also have used (still use) the UL arms, and they're fine to for anything from little Ike 50's to monsterweight Ike 200's. One thing in my experience that I've always found - I don't think the o-ring style balls really provide any measurable improvement in grip power over the non-o-ring types, and I've tested extensively. One thing I like about the TLC is the big wheel to crank them down - easy for big hands - easy in numbing cold with gloves - no problem sliding in ripping currents in Ulong Channel or Blue Corner, Palau. Also no problem with corrosion, even using them day-in, day-out for years. I just use teflon gel on the metal-to-metal contacts on a monthly basis, and give a 5% vinegar dip every week. They still look/function like new!

Ditto on curtisleo's post - I've also got the TLC 5"/8" arms on DS-125's and I love 'em.  I've also have used (still use) the UL arms, and they're fine to for anything from little Ike 50's to monsterweight Ike 200's.  One thing in my experience that I've always found - I don't think the o-ring style balls really provide any measurable improvement in grip power over the non-o-ring types, and I've tested extensively.  One thing I like about the TLC is the big wheel to crank them down - easy for big hands -  easy in numbing cold with gloves - no problem sliding in ripping currents in Ulong Channel or Blue Corner, Palau.  Also no problem with corrosion, even using them day-in, day-out for years.  I just use teflon gel on the metal-to-metal contacts on a monthly basis, and give a 5% vinegar dip every week.  They still look/function like new!

Whitey,

I'm very happy with ULCS arms. My set-ups are:

W/A : 2 x 2 12-inch (30 cm.) - (the 'get 'em out wide' school

Macro: 2 x 2 3.5 inch (8 cm.) - the little dumbells

Arms mount on top of the handles on a ULCS tray.

My primary strobes (when they're working) are Ikelite SS200s. I don't think I'd want to use anything but ULCS O-ring-style fittings with these heavy strobes. ULCS clamps work very well, and hold up. Tightened down, they will hold the strobes stable in any current that I can handle.

Mounted on long arms for w/a, the SS200s can stil be a problem out of the water. I use fastex clips to hold the arms together out of the water, a system that can probably be adapted for arms from any manufacturer. Use plastic ties to attach one half of a clip near the end of the second strobe arm section, and the other near the base of the first section. Another clip ties the two arms together near the top of the first arm section, making a nice rigid triangle.

I just wish ULCS (or someone else) would consider making buoyancy (tube) arm sections out of carbon fiber, the stuff Gitzo uses for their tripods. On any given trip, these arm components add up to significant weight.

I've now had opportunity to actually shoot with the cheap Ike arm I have (the non ball joint version), and I thought I'd let you know how it went. This is the non ball joint version. It actually was quite adjustable - it was more a case of user having to get used to strobe aiming than the arms fault that the strobe light was not always on the subject!

My main conclusion after 2 brief dives was that my single DS-50 isn't really up to the task. Angle of coverage just wasn't wide enough for me. And the arm just wasn't quite as adjustable as I'd like.

I'd pretty much figured that two new ball joint arms and two new strobes would be needed before I dived, but this just confirmed it. I might try shooting with a ds-125/ds-50 dual setup in the short term, but two different strobes sounds like too much of a hassle.

It's suprising there isn't more strobe arm threads around here! I'm rapidly learning that strobe arms are an essential ingredient to sucess, and that strobe placement is something of a black art.

If anyone else wishes to give their opinion re: favorite strobe arm +- strobe setup, please feel free!

Cheers,

Rob

just a minor info if still interested in E-TTL:

Just received an email from Matthias. The DS-125 is now on the compatible strobe list. Tested and confirmed fully compatible with his converter (for the time being with 300D firmware-version).

So when the hope on Ikelite conversion unit dies, you still have the option. In this respect no risk to buy the strobe

By the way Ike, Matthias sells the converter as an OEM unit for housing builders. I am sure you would get some kind of discount when ordering enough to fit all your 300D housings

I started out with the non-ball joint Ikelite arms, moved to the Ikelite ball joint arms (1.25 inches) , and finally settled on the Ultralight.

My primary problems with the Ikelite ball joint arms were that it was a lot more difficult to set the tension. IE loose enough so that I could re-set the strobe, but firm enough so that it would stay once I moved it. Additionally the fact that in the ikelite system the ball and arm are separate units meant (for me) that after a while the connection between the arm and ball got loose. This put a lot of slop in the arms and made focusing even harder.

With the ultralight, I find that the o-ring adds a sweet amount of friction to the clamp and it is easy to move the strobe where I want it, and then it just stays there. The fact that it is a single piece of metal reduces the slop in the arm.

Looking at Ikelite's website it is not clear to me if the new arms are one piece or not.

There is also an ergonomic factor. For me, the Ultralight arms just seem to feel smoother, silkier and easier to use.