best strobe arms

Hi,

I have to buy new strobe arms and wonder, which are the best.

The one from Seacam are very expensive.

Are Nauticam ore ULCS arms good for heavy flashes?

How about Ikelite? The DS161 are as heavy as the Seacam 150d.

Please help me!

Thanks in advance

Armin

From experience:

- ULCS and Nauticam strive arms are very good.

- in the USA, I would pick up the idas strobe arms that perform just as well as the Nauticam for a fraction of the price (included is an example link):

https://www.opticaloceansales.com/i-das/#/product/488

- on the other hand, I have both the idas and Nauticam clamps, and prefer the Nauticam and ULCS ones.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've had my ULCS for about 18 years and they have been flawless. I can recommend them highly. I've had Nikonos strobes on them and Inons.

I have Seacam 150d strobes and my ULCS don´t do a great Job.

I've used ultra lites for Inon 240z back to Oceanic 2001 with out any problems.

On a semi-tangential note... what have been people's experiences with the newer, fine thread ULCS clamps? I've never been thrilled with how tight I've had to crank down my clamps, to keep them from moving - especially with longer arms and some sporty dive conditions.... my thought is that the fine threads should allow significantly greater clamping force for any given torque on the knob....

I have UCLS arms for more than 12 years and since 6 years with Seacam 150d arms together with mike dive clamps. I have no complaints and theay still do a great job. I would buy them again.

On a semi-tangential note... what have been people's experiences with the newer, fine thread ULCS clamps? I've never been thrilled with how tight I've had to crank down my clamps, to keep them from moving - especially with longer arms and some sporty dive conditions.... my thought is that the fine threads should allow significantly greater clamping force for any given torque on the knob....

I like my ULCS arms, but I agree that the clamps can be a bit tough to fully tighten or loosen. I made these handles quickly as a prototype (out of scrap Azek), but they work so well that I haven't improved them yet. I was planning on connecting them via SS screws in lieu of the zip ties, but I've used these for about 100 dives, and I kind of like them. I'm a Canon shooter so I don't mind the white. Nikon shooters will probably prefer black.

What about Reikle or Subtronic?

Are this systems as good as the Seacam arms?

Kind Regards

Armin

@JohnnyQuest,

I like your solution... very simple and looks to be very effective. Thanks, for sharing.

Nauticam arms are really good thats for sure.

@JohnnyQuest,

 

I like your solution... very simple and looks to be very effective. Thanks, for sharing.

Thanks! But after looking at those photos I was embarrassed and followed my original plan with the SS hardware. Much better. I found little nylon finish washers that fit perfectly.

In my (limited) experience I have found that having to tighten clamps excessively to prevent strobe arms from moving can be a sign that the O-rings on the balls need replacing - a new O-ring provides much more friction than a worn O-ring. Try to get the correct O-ring for your strobe arms as each manufacturer uses a slightly different thickness O-ring or a different sized groove to hold the O-ring. If your gear has had a bit of use then try replacing all of the O-rings on the arms - it can't do any harm. Again - don't use cheap aftermarket O-rings.

If you have a clamp attaching 2 arms from different manufacturers you may find there is more friction in the ball/socket joint of one arm compared to the other - try to keep to the same brand.

I like using ULCS, Inon and Howshot clamps. I had problems with I-Das/I-Dive clamps scratching the balls as they needed to be done up particularly tight (even with new O-rings). On close inspection I noticed that the surface area of the socket that mates to the ball is much less on the cheaper I-Dive clamps than on the expensive brands (Inon, ULCS etc).

Having a smaller area of contact between the ball and the socket seems to require the clamp to be tighter to obtain the same level of friction (keep in mind that this can be masked or magnified by clamps having a fine or coarse thread).

I also suspect that the manufacturing tolerances and quality control would be superior with the more expensive brands - the ball and socket need to be a good match in terms of size and shape.

Hope that helps.

iDas for arms, Nauticam for clamps.

h2o tools and idas are really poor stuff

ULCS is great, with new Orings after 2 years i am happy again

I also love Nauticam