SMC-1, fitting and difficulty

Haha, thanks! It seems the Backscatter MF would be a good combo for me. I'll just have to decide if I can afford that AND the SMC-1, which, according to knowledgeable people I've asked, really does seem to be suitable at Dauin. Not a must, but suitable.

Edit: Question - would I want one of those flexible arms for mounting the Backscatter MF snoot combo?

3 hours ago, horvendile said:

Edit: Question - would I want one of those flexible arms for mounting the Backscatter MF snoot combo?

You certainly need flexibility in the arm((s) to be able to move the strobe/snoot easily and smoothly.

As an example mine is on combined 8” and 5” ULCS arms (with 3 clamps).  The clamps are slackened off just slightly so small adjustments are relatively easy to make whilst looking through the viewfinder. You need to be able to keep your eye on the subject whilst creeping the aiming light into the right place with the left hand. 

8 hours ago, horvendile said:

Haha, thanks! It seems the Backscatter MF would be a good combo for me. I'll just have to decide if I can afford that AND the SMC-1, which, according to knowledgeable people I've asked, really does seem to be suitable at Dauin. Not a must, but suitable.

Edit: Question - would I want one of those flexible arms for mounting the Backscatter MF snoot combo?

If you mean locline arms - I'd suggest no, they can be stiff and hard to fine position, but yes to a two arm/three clamp setup .

2 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

If you mean locline arms - I'd suggest no, they can be stiff and hard to fine position, but yes to a two arm/three clamp setup .

That's probably what I meant, yeah. Ok, thanks. Again, good intel.

...so, what would be a reasonable start, two 125 mm arms? Too short? I'll probably go with Nauticam arms & clamps, if there are no strong reasons to do otherwise.

Edit: I plan to fasten them on the top of my Sea&Sea MDX-Z7 housing, for use with 105 mm macro.

2x 125mm could be a bit limiting. I'd suggest go with 1x 125mm (5") and 1x 200mm (8"). This will give you lots of flexibility.

I'd also recommend going with ULCS clamps and arms and Stix buoyancy foam. It's a super combination which, so far for me, has lasted more than 20 years.

Thanks again. Would even longer, say 2 x 200, be better or worse? I think I found a package with that.

My local dealer does carry ULCS arms but not clamps. There's also Nauticam and something called Scubalamp. Do we know anything about Scubalamp?

I personally use 2x200mm on each side; one ladder arm with Stix floats on it, and one float arm (Weefine WFA37 in my case - 200mm long, 88mm diameter, up to 520g buoyancy, can be partially flooded for fine adjustment). I haven't used Nauticam arms, but looking at the photos, I see that the inner segments (the 'ladder' part) are thin - I have no-name Chinese arms that are built like this, and when I put Stix floats on them, they freely slide back and forth, which is a little bit annoying. The ULCS arms are built with uniform thickness, and the extra friction causes the foam blocks to stay put.

Scubalamp has a fairly good reputation with their video lights, less so with their strobes, I have not encountered nor heard any testimony on their arms and clamps.

Keep in mind that with an aluminium housing and a macro port, your rig is going to be heavily negative. Foam blocks on ladder arms might not be enough to counter it, at least in commonly available sizes. Consider float arms (thick ones) and possibly a crossbar on top of the housing. One caveat about using float arms though, is that they heavily influence trim - when you're shooting macro, with the strobes close to the port and arms sticking up, the housing is effectively hanging from the floats; if you try to use it at a significant upward or downward angle (i.e. shooting at the ceiling under an overhang, or down into a hole), it will try to twist itself back into horizontal, which is especially annoying when you're trying to operate it one-handed while steadying yourself against surge with your other hand.

Also, if you're using floats, whether they are buoyancy arms or foam blocks, it's helpful to have the 'elbow' joint on a long clamp.

5 hours ago, horvendile said:

Would even longer, say 2 x 200, be better or worse?

I suspect not as handy.

Having a slightly shorter arm at the snoot end helps, I find, get the snoot closer to the position you want. It might also become an issue of quite how far you can get your left hand/arm to reach to the end of the arms to move the snoot. 

Barmaglot makes a good point on the buoyancy issue. Snoot/strobes are heavy. I have a second Retra (usually switched off when snooting) on the right hand side of the housing with the same arm arrangement. This keeps the system in rough balance. But it does need a lot of Stix - and, as Bermaglot suggests, I have an arm across the length of my housing loaded with Stix.

With my Subal housing, a D500 and, say, 60mm macro lens plus the setup of 4 arms, 2 strobes, 1 snoot and cross bar, I have a total of 10.5 Stix Jumbo floats - around 1800gms of buoyancy. My system is just very slightly negatively buoyant which is the way I like it. 

This is the setup for Stix:

Housing + Nikkor 60mm + Retra/Reflector + Retra/LSD

8” arm x 2 each with 2x Stix

5” arm x 2 each with 1.5x Six

10” arm with 3.5x Stix

Total Stix = 10.5 = 1810gms

6 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

Scubalamp has a fairly good reputation with their video lights, less so with their strobes, I have not encountered nor heard any testimony on their arms and clamps.

I must confess that I have recently bought some clamps on AliExpress and I can't see any difference with the nauticam ones I have had for 10 years. Time will tell

18 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

I must confess that I have recently bought some clamps on AliExpress and I can't see any difference with the nauticam ones I have had for 10 years. Time will tell

I started with random clamps from Aliexpress about five years ago; ended up swapping all of them to ULCS. Aside from some of them rusting upon exposure to salt water, I found that they either bound tight, or flopped around loosely - I couldn't get them tuned to that spot where I could move the joint with some effort, and then it'd stay put.

Which specific brand are you using?

19 minutes ago, Barmaglot said:

I started with random clamps from Aliexpress about five years ago; ended up swapping all of them to ULCS. Aside from some of them rusting upon exposure to salt water, I found that they either bound tight, or flopped around loosely - I couldn't get them tuned to that spot where I could move the joint with some effort, and then it'd stay put.

Which specific brand are you using?

Years ago I also bought clamps on AliExpress and they all came to a bad end.
Months ago I joined a group purchase with some friends who already had them but I don't know the brand because they bought them. So far they seem to be going but when new they all look almost the same and then over time they get destroyed.
Otherwise I have all Nauticam clamps and in 10 years they have never given me any problems. 

Going back to the original topic, for macro video I use only locline arms. I add a couple of float arms wwith a triple clamp to reach an acceptable weight but working with tripod, a slightly heavy housing is better. Usually I bring with me a 1Kg lead with a bolt snap. I clip it on my lower d-ring harness and I use it on the tripod only when I need it.

Again, thanks all. I've now got a quotation with one 160 mm arm and one 200 mm arm. I guess that's at least not very wrong.

LOL, I don't think any of it is "very wrong". It's just what works better for personal preference. I hope we have steered you towards something that works well for you.

Let us know how you get on, eh?

HI

I can recommend a double SMC on a flip adapter with a macro lens (Olympus 60mm).  I got to photograph Shaun the Sheep Nudis and you can see grains of sand beside them. Have a look at https://photojourney.smiliemail.org/Dauin/

This is a free PDF eBook, grabbed over 300 times worldwide.  320 pages, mostly images by site, but with a Table of Contents as well to get logistics info (accommodation, flights, food, dive resort, etc). Enjoy.

Other free PDF eBooks are at https://photojourney.smiliemail.org/gallery/

ciao

I just returned from Dauin yesterday.  Before I left, I purchased the Marelux SOFT Pro, and tried it out on a few dives locally to see how difficult it was to use.  Snooting (for me at least) will take more practice to get proficient, so I decided to leave it at home, and learn to use it locally where I'm not concerned about losing a shot or two on subjects I'll have a chance to photograph again.  I was very glad I left it at home and concentrated on all the macro opportunities rather than learning to use new equipment.  Our guide pointed out critters faster than we could photograph them, so had I spent a lot of time on a single subject getting the snoot shot perfect, I would have missed out on many others. 

I also had a chance to use the SMC-1 (mounted on a Saga Flip) on nearly every dive.  I would say 30% of my macro shots were made using the SMC-1.  As other folks have stated above, the depth of field is razor thin.  Even a millimeter or two closer or further away makes the difference between nudibranch rhinophores in focus or not.  I have used other diopters before so had some practice using them, but definitely got more proficient after a few days of frequent use.  If you can, I'd recommend practicing with a diopter before it's game time.  

Definitely bring a muck stick to help steady you and your rig safely and off the reef.