Help me mount a focus light to a compact housing

[Hotpuppy]

Well, first let me tell you that I don't like the idea.....

However, the following would work:
Strobe Arm Systems
See Item H (clamp) and Item T (ball mount). The old Nikonos housings had a spot for a flash mount. I would also recommend calling Ikelite and telling them what you are doing and asking which mount would work.

The better thing to do would be a tray. Camera Housings, Strobes, Arms, Trays & More! - Optical Ocean Sales Underwater Photo - 800-359-1295! Optical Ocean is a ScubaBoard supporter and he makes nice stuff. I have one of his trays that I used with a Canon Case.

Okay, so let me go beyond your question with a few tips.
1- A video light or flashlight will not take the place of a strobe. It will give you marginally better pics, but it won't freeze action.
2- The Canon case in my opinion is intended for snorkelers and water parks and pools. It's a nice case, but they are really tempermental and it's easy to flood them. I flooded one on my last trip. Cost me $150 to have the camera repaired. I did take the case to 135 FSW, but that wasn't what caused it to flood. The o-ring was the culprit. You do have o-ring grease and replacements right? I was storing my o-ring in the case which is a NO NO! They apparently compress over time.
3- A tray will run you about $100 and gives you a good hard point to mount strobes or lights to. You can btw probably use a dive light for video. It just won't do much with stills. As an added bonus, a tray protects your camera a little and ensures you aren't stressing the case by swinging it around with your hands under water.

 

[azisme]

For ideas- Here's what I'm making to mount the same light to a cold shoe.

I have been searching for an auto shutoff focus light that was just a notch above the Nano and have been considering the FF-1x5W AFO Focus Light but has been stopping me is the mount. I finally stumbled across this post and mainly just want to say thank you! While I am here let me ask if you think this would work for me. I currently have this adapter:

and am thinking of ordering something like this:



I will be mounting it to an Olympus PT-050 housing for the X-Z1. Does it look like it will work? Any special considerations I need to think about? Better ideas for parts?

I also have to ask you how you provided the illustration. That is really nice.

 

[azisme]

I took another look at a picture of the 1x5W light and realized the handle that comes with the light is not what you have illustrated. Did you fabricate your own?

 

[Wisnu]

The bigblue focus light is nice and sturdy light but relatively heave and bulky compared with WPDC-31. It come with handle and ball joint (no clamp included). I do not recommend to mount directly into the delicate can housing. Best still to use tray as suggested by Hotpuppy.

The Oly PT-050 has cold shoe where you can mount via connector; though I'm not so sure how strong this connection. The focus light is heavier than the housing + camera.

 

[buton]

The bigblue focus light is nice and sturdy light but relatively heave and bulky compared with WPDC-31. It come with handle and ball joint (no clamp included). I do not recommend to mount directly into the delicate can housing. Best still to use tray as suggested by Hotpuppy.

The Oly PT-050 has cold shoe where you can mount via connector; though I'm not so sure how strong this connection. The focus light is heavier than the housing + camera.

totally agree, i have that light with the pt-050 and it is heavy and bulky, but cheap lol a sola is around 400 usd

 

[DSR-3]

azisme, yes, I fabricated the parts as shown.
I agree that this light is too much for the typical compact housing. Mayabe mounted to the bottom?
For a shoe-mount on a more sturdy housing, I would try this and this or this - not that I could pay $65 for that S&S part.

 

[azisme]

azisme, yes, I fabricated the parts as shown.
I agree that this light is too much for the typical compact housing. Mayabe mounted to the bottom?
For a shoe-mount on a more sturdy housing, I would try this and this or this - not that I could pay $65 for that S&S part.

I would purchase this before the S&S version.

OK you have me convinced, too big. Is there not anything in between the Fantasea Nano and the Big Blue 1x5W with auto shutoff?

Maybe I am being too adamant about the auto off thing. I know the strobe(s) will overpower the focus light, but I can't help but believe the focus light will light up some backscatter. I have done searches on this but I couldn't find any threads that gave any convincing answers either way.

Maybe I need to start a new thread on the subject?

 

[azisme]

Holy cow, I just looked up the weight of the 1x5W, 460 grams with batteries. My Princeton Tec Torrent LED with 8 AA's only weighs 365 grams with batteries. Is that thing made of lead? One of my numbers must be wrong.