My arms are killing me!

[TSandM]

For Christmas, I got a wide angle lens, dome port, and second strobe. So I now have strobes, each one on an arm which has two segments. They're very long when extended. They fold up quite neatly if I 180 all the joints. But I can't KEEP them there! No matter how hard I tighten the fittings, the minute I start walking to the water, the arms begin to extend, and by the time I'm hiking down the hill, the strobes are whacking me in the knees.

How do other people deal with this?

 

[Nwcid]

I have been having troubles since I upgraded this fall. On strobes I went from smallish DS-50 strobes to large YS-250's. I went with new UCLS strobe arms. With my old set up I would just fold the arms over the housing and use them for the handle.

With the new set up I have been just placing the strobes along each side of the housing with the arms going up from the handle (short section) and then angle down (long section) to the strobe. I then have to carry it 2 handed, one on each arm. I asked a similar question on here and Wetpixel and didn't get much of a reply.

 

[Agility]

cave line? bungee? I would just tie them down where I want them for carrying.

 

[flareside]

From the title of this thread, I thought it would be about the punchline to the old joke "I just flew in from New York and...."

 

[djtimmy77]

My dive buddies used double enders between the middle joint for a long time (worked ok, a little hard to get on and off) until we saw a diver with a rope handle, and so I bought some mooring line and made them a couple. It works great and keeps the CG low while carrying it around. Also gives the deckhand a solid place to grab the camera.

 

[Imla]

MP Clamp (Multi-Purpose) with shackle - MOUNTS - CLAMPS - FOTOGRAFIT

these are neat. fix dem on the middle joint, and attach rope. gives a nice handle and full control

 

[Doubler]

I built my handle using a strobe arm segment, directions available at UnderwaterCameraStuff. It is sturdy and provides a place to mount Focus Light and Gopro.

 

[Linedog]

If they are plastic or non metal, perhaps a bit of sanding on the balls to roughen them up so they grab better?

 

[TSandM]

Thanks, djtimmy! I think I can throw together something like that. With the one strobe, I put a loop of cave line from the focus light stem to the strobe, but that just wasn't working with two.

Now if I can just figure out how to get them out where I want them when I dive! I really like WA photographs and I'm excited about learning how to create them, but man, the camera has now become an ever-loving nuisance in the water!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

UW Camera Related Tips - Kevin Lee's Photos