MountainDrew
Registered
Well I finally got in the ocean with my new DC1000 Maxx (two strobes).
I took CoolTech’s advice and bought a focus light from Jack at Optical Ocean Sales. Jack does not advise people to use his stuff on SeaLife products. When pressed, he said if I’m going to do it anyway try the Nano which is not as bulky as the Big Blue. The issue with Sealife isn’t a functionality conflict. It is a mounting conflict. There just isn’t a good mounting location on the standard SeaLife rig. I picked out the handle mount kit to go with the Nano and figured I’d find a way. I did find a way that I would not call permanent and the light worked fine. Although the specs say it looks for a pre-flash to turn itself off for three seconds so it’s off for the real flash and shutter, and SeaLife doesn’t really have a pre-flash, a test picture facing a mirror proves that it is off for the picture.
Functionally, everything I tried works as designed. Two strobes are great. I didn’t have to wait for these new ones to re-charge (one reason for my upgrade). The new strobes are bigger and heavier than the one that came with my old DC500, and having two of them make the rig more of a project to handle, especially getting in and out of the surf. I’ve found ways to clip it to my body during entry and exit.
The types of issues I had all come down to the mounting plates:
1. On the old one-strobe setup it was easy and comfortable to hold the camera housing on the right hand side with my index finger on the shutter button. I can’t do that anymore with the second strobe arm so close to the housing.
2. You can’t mount the focus light directly on the mounting plate because there’s almost no room and the plate is hollow. Drilled holes would have to go right through the support ribs underneath.
3. The mounting plates feel very weak with the additional weight of the new strobes, especially out of the water. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before someone doesn’t handle it carefully enough and something cracks.
4. Handling the rig in the water by holding the camera housing seems to put a lot of stress on the housing mount location and I find myself pushing buttons by accident trying to grip the housing to position the rig or fight the buoyancy of the strobes. I think it would be nice to have an actual handle on the mounting plate so the stress of handling the whole rig is not focused on the mounting point of any one functional part (camera mount or strobe arm mounts).
CoolTech has the right idea – make your own mounting plate. I’m going to make one too. With the exception of the focus light, my setup is pure SeaLife DC1000 Maxx right out of the box. I’d be glad to share my progress if anyone is interested, otherwise I won’t spend the time. So let me know overtly if you want to see how it goes.
There’s also my temporary setup I could share. I was able to clamp the focus light to the mounting plate with standard mending plates and bolts/wingnuts from Home Depot. And by drilling out a little plastic above the wide-angle lens mount screw-hole I was able to slide the righthand mounting plate about two inches out and use two mounting screws. This creates more room between the camera housing and the right hand strobe arm. Surprisingly, it all fits together like that, but it increases the leverage of stress on the plate and makes it feel even weaker. So let me know if there is interest in that as well and I’ll provide details.
The DC1000 is a great setup for the money, and from one source with great support. It's a good thing that the areas lacking can be remedied with a little nontechnical improvisation. I wouldn't be surprised if SeaLife gets their mounting plates upgraded at some point in the future.
Steve
I took CoolTech’s advice and bought a focus light from Jack at Optical Ocean Sales. Jack does not advise people to use his stuff on SeaLife products. When pressed, he said if I’m going to do it anyway try the Nano which is not as bulky as the Big Blue. The issue with Sealife isn’t a functionality conflict. It is a mounting conflict. There just isn’t a good mounting location on the standard SeaLife rig. I picked out the handle mount kit to go with the Nano and figured I’d find a way. I did find a way that I would not call permanent and the light worked fine. Although the specs say it looks for a pre-flash to turn itself off for three seconds so it’s off for the real flash and shutter, and SeaLife doesn’t really have a pre-flash, a test picture facing a mirror proves that it is off for the picture.
Functionally, everything I tried works as designed. Two strobes are great. I didn’t have to wait for these new ones to re-charge (one reason for my upgrade). The new strobes are bigger and heavier than the one that came with my old DC500, and having two of them make the rig more of a project to handle, especially getting in and out of the surf. I’ve found ways to clip it to my body during entry and exit.
The types of issues I had all come down to the mounting plates:
1. On the old one-strobe setup it was easy and comfortable to hold the camera housing on the right hand side with my index finger on the shutter button. I can’t do that anymore with the second strobe arm so close to the housing.
2. You can’t mount the focus light directly on the mounting plate because there’s almost no room and the plate is hollow. Drilled holes would have to go right through the support ribs underneath.
3. The mounting plates feel very weak with the additional weight of the new strobes, especially out of the water. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before someone doesn’t handle it carefully enough and something cracks.
4. Handling the rig in the water by holding the camera housing seems to put a lot of stress on the housing mount location and I find myself pushing buttons by accident trying to grip the housing to position the rig or fight the buoyancy of the strobes. I think it would be nice to have an actual handle on the mounting plate so the stress of handling the whole rig is not focused on the mounting point of any one functional part (camera mount or strobe arm mounts).
CoolTech has the right idea – make your own mounting plate. I’m going to make one too. With the exception of the focus light, my setup is pure SeaLife DC1000 Maxx right out of the box. I’d be glad to share my progress if anyone is interested, otherwise I won’t spend the time. So let me know overtly if you want to see how it goes.
There’s also my temporary setup I could share. I was able to clamp the focus light to the mounting plate with standard mending plates and bolts/wingnuts from Home Depot. And by drilling out a little plastic above the wide-angle lens mount screw-hole I was able to slide the righthand mounting plate about two inches out and use two mounting screws. This creates more room between the camera housing and the right hand strobe arm. Surprisingly, it all fits together like that, but it increases the leverage of stress on the plate and makes it feel even weaker. So let me know if there is interest in that as well and I’ll provide details.
The DC1000 is a great setup for the money, and from one source with great support. It's a good thing that the areas lacking can be remedied with a little nontechnical improvisation. I wouldn't be surprised if SeaLife gets their mounting plates upgraded at some point in the future.
Steve
