Attaching Digital Lens Dock to Ikelite Housing?

[segal3]

Any suggestions?

I'm hesitant to mount it on the bottom considering the number of shots one takes where the housing is extremely close to the ground/another object, fear of scratching lens, etc...

~Matt Segal

 

[Dee]

The best place I've found is attached to the base of the strobe arm with a couple of zip ties. On my old PT-10, it fit great on the top of the housing but the buttons are in the way on the PT-15.

Since you have an Ikelite housing, maybe Gilligan's mount will work for you. It's a plexiglass base mounted off the strobe handle. I'm going to try a version of it on my PT-15.

 

[ssra30]

I just attached the lens dock to the arm of my Ikelite strobe which seems to work ok for macro and WAL but a bit less convienient for the Inon WAL with domeport.

 

[segal3]

ssra30 - And it doesn't move around at all on the ike arm? I would think it would just rotate around it...?

~Matt Segal

 

[Dee]

ssra30 - And it doesn't move around at all on the ike arm? I would think it would just rotate around it...?

~Matt Segal

Not ssra30 but....
I'm using an Infinity arm made of Loc-line sections..it's round. As long as I get the tie wraps tight, the DLD stays in place.

 

[ssra30]

I used a few zip ties and tied them down very tight. Macro lens are light enough that it does not move the lens dock around WAL may move the lens dock around a little bit but not really a problem. Only the WAL with Inon domeport which are quite a bit bigger and heavier do the lens dock rotate around quite annoyingly. I ended up buying a couple of pieces of UCLS arm and Inon Lens caddy and stick them on the other arm of Ikelite (I use dual handle tray) to carry the WAL/Domeport.

 

[segal3]

Not ssra30 but....
I'm using an Infinity arm made of Loc-line sections..it's round. As long as I get the tie wraps tight, the DLD stays in place.

That is much thicker than the Ikelite arm however...

~Matt Segal

 

[Dee]

That is much thicker than the Ikelite arm however...

~Matt Segal

I don't think it would matter. Isn't the Ike arm flat? Tight tie wraps should hold it.

When you find a better way, let us know!

 

[gbundersea]

Matt,
Assuming that there's no spot which would provide even a small non-round surface on which to mount it, I think that if the cable ties are sufficiently tightened, the DLD will stay put with no problem on a uniformly round arm. Also, you could easily put a small piece of heat-shrink tubing, inner tube, bare neoprene, etc under the cable ties to act as a non-slip surface. That should do it for sure.

A more involved method would be to use four 316 stainless steel bolts, a couple of pieces of plastic scrap, (or possibly plastic pipe straps) and bolt it down tightly.

If you want, send me some pics of your setup and I'll be glad to offer some suggestions. I do think the cable ties will work though, especially with some "no-skid" under them.

 

[segal3]

As above except there will be an extra 6" arm and clamp.

(strobe)-x_clamp_x------arm------x_clamp_x------arm------x_clamp_x-handle

Your stainless steel bolt idea - you're suggestion putting those through the pre-drilled holes, and then using the plastic sheet as a backing for a "compression clamp" that goes around the arm? My only concern is that as you tighten the material to a point at which it no longer slips, that's a large amount of strain put on the material at the point of clamping (ie, on the arm)...eventually going to snap? (I have a drill press, metal minilathe, jigsaw, etc...so familiar with some of these ideas...not sure exactly where you're going?)...At the very least, I want it to be clean-looking.

~Matt Segal