INON MEGA FLOAT vs NAUTICAM 70mm float

Hello,

I would like to know which one do you choose

1. INON Mega float M - buoyancy 650g - diameter 97mm ( quite big ) - length 224mm

vs 

2. Nauticam carbon fiber diameter 70x300mm  - Buoyancy 670g

The buoyancy is almost the same, but the big different is diameter and length.

Which one do you prefer and why?

Thanks for your opinion.

Namton

Hey Namton

I bought (and sold) a pair of the Inon Mega floats and have something broadly similar in diameter and length to the Nauticams (actually ULCS with Stix) and much prefer the ULCS/Stix.

Although the Mega floats sounded good, I found the very broad diameter a bit of a pain. They always seemed to be in the way, jammed my hand sometimes between the controls and the float; and just seemed awkward for packing and travelling. I just could not get on with them.

All very subjective, personal opinions of course.

1 hour ago, TimG said:

Hey Namton

I bought (and sold) a pair of the Inon Mega floats and have something broadly similar in diameter and length to the Nauticams (actually ULCS with Stix) and much prefer the ULCS/Stix.

Although the Mega floats sounded good, I found the very broad diameter a bit of a pain. They always seemed to be in the way, jammed my hand sometimes between the controls and the float; and just seemed awkward for packing and travelling. I just could not get on with them.

All very subjective, personal opinions of course.

 

 

Thanks Tim for your valuable advice. I afraid INON mega float is quite too big in diameter to me too.  

No worries, Namton

Have you had a look at Stix? The Nauticam float arms are good, but using, say, ULCS and Stix is way more flexible. You can add or remove buoyancy quite quickly if you need to.

The trick with the mega floats is to use long clamps - I have the small mega floats used together with plain non-float arms for my macro setup and find it works well.    I can't use the same setup with my dome as it is too buoyant - domes tend to add some buoyancy to the system compared to macro setup - the bigger the dome, the more buoyant in general.  The big mega floats have a lot of buoyancy and you generally need to use two of them for symmetry.  So with either of these choices you are looking at 1.2kg of buoyancy as a minimum. 

11 hours ago, TimG said:

No worries, Namton

Have you had a look at Stix? The Nauticam float arms are good, but using, say, ULCS and Stix is way more flexible. You can add or remove buoyancy quite quickly if you need to.

In my country, there is no dealer of Stix brand. It's so sad.  

5 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

The trick with the mega floats is to use long clamps - I have the small mega floats used together with plain non-float arms for my macro setup and find it works well.    I can't use the same setup with my dome as it is too buoyant - domes tend to add some buoyancy to the system compared to macro setup - the bigger the dome, the more buoyant in general.  The big mega floats have a lot of buoyancy and you generally need to use two of them for symmetry.  So with either of these choices you are looking at 1.2kg of buoyancy as a minimum. 

Thanks Chris for your good advice. From your recommendation , I think I will buy the long clamps x2 ( Use between housing and floats) and standard clamps x4 for the rest. But before that I have to weigh my gear UW and see how much buoyancy do I need.

Thanks again.

the long clamp goes in the centre between the two arms - it allows the arm to fold completely so the two arms are parallel.  First though get your weight in water - you could have a different mixture of arms.

3 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

the long clamp goes in the centre between the two arms - it allows the arm to fold completely so the two arms are parallel.  First though get your weight in water - you could have a different mixture of arms.

I just weigh my setup UW (fresh water)

A7RIII + 8-15 + extension + 140mm dome = 800 g 

YS-D3 x2  = -50 g 

weefine 2300 focus light = 250 g

I need Nauticam long clamps x2 , standard clamps x5 and Nauticam 125 mm double ball arm x2

I think Nauticam diameter 70 x 250 mm carbon fiber floats x2 (buoyancy = 520 g each ) are the nearest neutral buoyancy for my setup.

Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions. 

Thanks

Total UW weight =800-50+250= 1000 gr.  The two Nauticam arms are 1020 gr, so 20 gr positive, however you also add 6 clamps and two ball arms which I think are around 650gr in total maybe a little less in water  so you might be 500-600 gr negative when you add them in.

You probably could use two of the big INON or Nauticam floats with that setup depending on the weights of your clamps.  An alternative might be to add 2 INON ML arms at 210 gr each and be 100-200 gr negative.   Or you could consider the Kraken adjustable arms if you want to get perfectly neutral.

14 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

Total UW weight =800-50+250= 1000 gr.  The two Nauticam arms are 1020 gr, so 20 gr positive, however you also add 6 clamps and two ball arms which I think are around 650gr in total maybe a little less in water  so you might be 500-600 gr negative when you add them in.

You probably could use two of the big INON or Nauticam floats with that setup depending on the weights of your clamps.  An alternative might be to add 2 INON ML arms at 210 gr each and be 100-200 gr negative.   Or you could consider the Kraken adjustable arms if you want to get perfectly neutral.

 

Thank you for your advice. I appreciated your valuable information. 

Maybe I will try all my setup with 2 floats (Nauticam 70x250mm) and all clamps. Then, I will weigh it again and consider how many negative buoyancy do I have. 

I will consider it and let you know.

Many thanks again.

That's a good approach , having a slightly negative housing is not a bad thing, much better than positive.

1 hour ago, ChrisRoss said:

That's a good approach , having a slightly negative housing is not a bad thing, much better than positive.

Hi, how do you plan to use them? 300mm might be to long for typical macro shots.

I pretty much use 3 setups on a Nauticam for D500. All of them slighty negative but confortable.

Macro (60 & 87 ports): 2 Inon Mega Float Arm S + 2 Aquatica 8" buoyancy arm

Fisheye 100mm port:   2 Inon Mega Float Arm M + 2 Nauticam 300mm arms

Fisheye 230mm port:   2 Aquatica 8" buoyancy arm + 2 Nauticam 300mm arms with 1 sitx jumbo insert each

The big diameter of the Inon Mega floats is perfect for a computer and also to carry macro diopters.

Regards,

Joss

4 hours ago, Joss said:

Hi, how do you plan to use them? 300mm might be to long for typical macro shots.

I pretty much use 3 setups on a Nauticam for D500. All of them slighty negative but confortable.

Macro (60 & 87 ports): 2 Inon Mega Float Arm S + 2 Aquatica 8" buoyancy arm

Fisheye 100mm port:   2 Inon Mega Float Arm M + 2 Nauticam 300mm arms

Fisheye 230mm port:   2 Aquatica 8" buoyancy arm + 2 Nauticam 300mm arms with 1 sitx jumbo insert each

The big diameter of the Inon Mega floats is perfect for a computer and also to carry macro diopters.

Regards,

Joss

Hello Mr.Joss,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

My setup is

Nauticam housing for A7RIII + Canon fisheye 8-15  + extension + 140mm fisheye dome port = 800 g 

YS-D3 x2  = -50 g 

Weefine 2300 focus light = 250 g

Total = 1000g + ~500g for 7 clamps and 2 arms

I think I will stick with only fisheye setup, I'm not a professional photographer and I'm not used to shoot macro shots. 

I wish I will buy Nauticam diameter 70 x 250 mm carbon fiber floats x2 (buoyancy = 520 g each ) 

and weigh it underwater.

After that I will fine tune the buoyancy with high density foam or maybe buy small floats.