Sea and Sea strobe arms?

[DrSteve]

I've been looking around for strobe arms for my Sea and Sea MX10.

S&S sells the fiber optic connector for 150, and a movable arm to hold everything is a mere 250 or so. There is also the MX-tender.

Has anyone else tried any other methods of mounting their strobe further off the camera. Also...do you just eyeball it to determine the correct angle of the strobe with respect to your focal length?

Thanks

 

[Dee]

I got rid of my MX-10 just before Greg invented the MX-Tender or I would probably still be using it. To get the strobe away from the camera, the MX-tender is the only reliable way to do that. And please don't waste your money on the S&S copy of the MX-Tender. It's made of plastic and not nearly as well.

The only time I used the MX-Tender, it was mounted on a S&S double strobe base. It worked very well. The angle of the base kept the strobe pointed in a good general position.

 

[gbundersea]

First of all, thank you, Dee, for your kind words. I appreciate them very much.

As for the Sea&Sea fiber optic cable: Be advised that with the Sea&Sea cable, there is no way whatsoever to mount the strobe to an arm/tray setup!

There has been some confusion about this, not from users, but from uninformed dealers. On one occasion, a Sea&Sea dealer sold a customer the Sea&Sea cable and all the components for an arm system such as base, arm, etc. When it all came in, they couldn't figure out why it didn't fit together. The reason is very simple: Sea&Sea's cable does not in any way support the addition of an arm, period! The dealer, who should have known better, even called Sea&Sea headquarters for advice, and they said it was supposed to work, which is physically impossible. I could hardly believe it when I heard about this. The customer immediately returned the Sea&Sea cable, and had me ship him an MXTENDER overnight so he'd have it for his month-long trip to Fiji!

For an apples-to-apples comparison of the Sea&Sea cable and the MXTENDER, take a look at this page if you haven't already.

 

[DrSteve]

Thanks for your advice. The whole shebang is still a little too much right now which is why I was looking for alternatives to the ones out there.