Need help for floaters to make my UW set buoyant

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funscuba

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Hi all, I'd like to know which floaters from Nauticam or else would I need to make my complete set neutral UW, you can see the weight of it on the weighter, and my camera is the Sony RX100 MK II.
I've been suggested 2 Nauticam carbon fiber float arms 90x150mm (buyancy 375g), but will those help ?
Thanks !

the set with the lens 4791g

IMG_0564.jpg

and the set without the lens 3773g


 

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You need to find out how negative your rig is in salt water. Get a bucket or tote big enough to allow you to suspend your rig in water. Board across the top, scale on the board then a stick on the scale. Attach your rig to the stick and suspend the rig in the water with the stick on the scale. Weight minus the weight of the stick is how much “float” you need.

If you don’t have salt water use fresh and adjust for the volume of water displaced by the rig. I just guessed as the difference is not huge on that small a volume.
 
Yes, weigh it in a tub. Just hang it from a luggage scale. Also get a flotation collar for that lens (WWL-1?). Otherwise, your trim will be all out of whack every time you put the lens on and off. The (newer) Nauticam carbon-fiber floats are fine, but the diameter/length you need is not yet known. You want use then in pairs so the camera is balanced L-R and front-back. Put them close to the camera, not out at the second arm.
 
Thanks for the infos and tips, I do have two Nauticam carbon float arm 200mm X 60mm / 8 in. x 2.4, but they really don't help at all UW. So I was just wondering if anyone had about the best system and give me his point of view.
Oh and btw I forgot to add that the strobes are without batteries, so the weight is even greater.
 
The weight on land is almost irrelevant. Your strobes, for example, are nearly neutral u/w. You must weigh it while it is submerged.
 
That's right weight in air is meaningless, get your self a luggage scale and weigh it in water, fresh water is close enough - make it slightly negative, a positive housing is a pain to use. What's the big dome/lens - WWL?

As far as the best system goes any of the float systems will work, the float arms don't compress which is a plus, but they are pricier. The INON arms and the Nauticam arms are both good, BUT you need the right size and the only way to find that out is to weigh the system in water. Then each arm has a buoyancy in the specs . Once you know how much it weighs in water you can then work out how many of which model float arm are needed to cancel out that weight. Here's the specs for the INON arms: INON Arm System [Arm] click on the float arm to jump to the specs.

For example if you weighed the rig and it weighed 850grams underwater then two "INON mega float arms S" at -390gram each would provide -780 grams buoyancy which is probably about right and the rig would only weigh 70 gr underwater which is close enough. Unless you have an adjustable system you can only get in the ballpark for neutral buoyancy for your rig. Remember you are constrained by balancing the rig so you need two arms minimum.

It looks like you have two Float arm S which are -75 gram each for a total of -150gr, which is not much so not surprised it doesn't seem to have much effect.

You can use two float arms each side or a single which ever matches best and also take into account if to use need a float collar for the big lens - if it's a WWL it is quite heavy in water.

Also when you weigh it in water leave out the float arms unless you are planning to use them along with another arm each side.
 
It's an Inon UWL - W100.
So many technical details, thanks. Gotta be someone else using the same set to give me his tech details aswell.
 

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