Advice Regarding Set Up Bouyancy

[jjwebster]

Hi fellow scubaboard members,

My current set up is a Canon S100 in a recsea housing, epoque focus light, 1 x YS02 and UWL-04 fish eye lens with a standard 10bar flex arm.

I want to upgrade my set up to 2 strobes (another YS02), a ball and arm system along with some buoyancy arms, as the setup is already quite negative underwater.

Currently I'm looking at trying to configure a set up on divervision and am think of getting a deeproof tray set, deeproof 6" arms and clamps, plus an additional YS02.

For buoyancy, I don't know whether to go with the inon float arm S or the mega float arm S, can anyone offer any guidance?

If I'm not shooting white angle, I would be using 1 or 2 UCL 165 macro lens.

Also, does anyone have any experience with deeproof arms and clamps?

Thanks!

 

[Interceptor121]

For buoyancy arms look here

Increase the your rig?s buoyancy using floats or float arms | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog

You really do not want to go cheap on the clamps or you will write them off very soon. The only decent ones are Ultralight, Nauticam and Inon the rest I would not trust

 

[jjwebster]

Thanks interceptor, great blog post!

Definitely leaning towards the mega float arms, are you using the medium size? Would also be interested to know the weight of your inon WA lens vs the UWL04?

Also are your inon strobes heavy underwater? My YS02 is relatively light, I'm just trying to do a comparison between my rig verses yours and if I need a S or M mega float arms...

Problem is I haven't bought all the items so can't do a true calculation.

 

[Interceptor121]

Inon provides all the buoyancy data on their website look for arms and then underwater weight. UWL-04 is around 160 grams in fresh water. I have a similar set up with recsea housing for the s95 and it needs one mega M segment. The sea and sea strobes are around 80 grams lighter so if you have a focus light it should be ok. Buy quality parts from ultralight and inon don't waste time with imitations that will last very short. All you need is a single M segment two clamps and a YS adapter plus a tray and a handle

 

[Larry C]

I can't recommend the deeproof arms. I bought a couple of 12" deeproof lightweight arms (the ones with just a straight dowel type shaft and ball) and the ball on one of them came loose and spins on the shaft with no apparent way to fix them. It's not threaded, and I tried and failed with epoxy-maybe I should have soldered it. I ended up swapping to a pair of ultralight buoyancy arms. They still don't fully support my Sea & Sea with the mini dome or standard port, but my other arms and clamps are very heavy Aquatica type. Eventually, I'll probably complete the set-up with a pair of regular ultralight arms and their lighter clamps. I find the Ultralight large buoyancy arms to be too fat. I think they'd get in the way. I suspect the Inon mega buoyancy arms might have a similar issue.

 

[Interceptor121]

Inon mega are very big but we have this set up with the S95 and you can put the strobe in any position. It is a small compact rig

I a not sure how that would work with a large housing
H portrait by Interceptor121, on Flickr