Inon Telescopic Arms?

http://www.scubaverse.com/s-u-p-e-r-part-14-inon-telescopic-arms-2/

Are these telescopic strobe arms viable? It would be great to have the option to extend the arms.

They are quite cool, work well, a bit expensive and a bit big for traveling but they do indeed work.

Bill

They are quite cool, work well, a bit expensive and a bit big for traveling but they do indeed work.

Bill

Thanks for the reply, Bill!

Here are the lengths and weights for each of three Inon telescopic arms:

http://www.inon.jp/products/armsystem/arm.html

short (S): 11.0in to 20.2in

Effective length: 260mm (10.2in) to 495mm (19.4in)

120g (4.2oz) [air] / approx.57g (2.0oz) [underwater]

$99 on Amazon

medium (M): 11" to 20.2"

Effective length: 350mm (13.7in) to 770mm (30.3in)

211g (7.4oz) [air] / approx.88g (3.1oz) [underwater]

$135 on Amazon

long (L): 18.1" to 41.5

Effective length: 350mm (13.7in) to 770mm (30.3in)

262g (9.2oz) [air] / approx.106g (3.7oz) [underwater]

$160 on Amazon

As comparisons, two Ultralight Control Systems arm setups:

http://www.ulcs.com/index.php/products/arms-clamps/weights-and-measurements

5" + 8" arm combo

carry length = 8", total expanded length = 19"

14 oz (air) / 9.5 oz (underwater)

ULCS double-ball arms are $48 for 5". 8" and 12", so $96 without clamps)

12" + 16"

carry length = 16", expanded = 34"

17 oz (air) / 12 oz (underwater)

ULCS double-ball arms are $48 for 5", 8" and 12" and $50 for 16" so $98 without clamps)

In conclusion, probably because they are carbon fiber, the Inon telescopic arms are much lighter in weight (almost half the weight), but just a little bit longer. They might be a little bit bulkier because they are cylinders instead of flat. The short telescopic ($99) is cheaper, the medium ($135) is a tad more expensive and the longs ($160) are more expensive, but not prohibitive.

Also, the Inon telescopics have their own proprietary Mega Float system, which might be good or bad depending on how well they are implemented. I would sure like to do a side by side, in-person, physical comparison.

I am undecided. But, no doubt, they work and they are cool! The Inon telescopic arms were released less than a year ago, but they *feel* like a long term solution. I need to do more research and maybe get more comments from the experts here at wetpixel.com. I searched for the telescopic arms on these forums but could not find anything about the Inons. I am taking a trip to Asia and it will be my first underwater photography experience, so it might be smarter to go with tried and true solutions -- probably Nauticam float arms, plus ULCS regular arms with Stix floats.

If I buy the telescopic arms, it will probably be the longs, Might as well get something that can do backlighting easily, and possibly even selfies. (Alex Mustard used an assistant to do backlighting in his book.) This means I would have to get fiber optic cables that accommodate the 41" length. The long is 7-inches longer than the medium, but long cylindrical things can usually fit vertically in corners or sides of a travel bag fairly easily. The question is how the length handles underwater and on a boat (especially with extra long strobe cables on them), but the fact that telescopic collapses should make them shorter until you need the extra length.

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We used the arms in 2016 at the Anilao Critter Fest with the mega float system. The were easy to adjust and relatively simple to get the strobes to the correct position. If it were me I would get the medium ones and if I wanted to backlight take the strobe off of the camera. One thing to remember though, if you have two arms on each side with clamps you have essentially infinitely more angles you can play with.

Bill