ULCS Double Ball Buoyancy Arms

[gus055]

I have been using Ikelite arms with dual Ike DS-125 strobes on Ike housing. The port is a 6" dome not the 8" dome. I would like this set up to be more neutral in the water. I have used some pool noodle on the arms, but I would really like to get away from this.

The ulcs 2" diameter bouyancy arms look like they would be great to use, but I would like to here from someone who has used them on a Olympus DSLR in Ike housing.

 

[RTRski]

I just got some, used, to go with an E330 kit. I have not yet taken them in the water yet though, so have no idea of the buoyancy. I'll also just be using DS50s. So far all I've done is leak-test the housing in a sink - the full rig will go together and get a pool baptism hopefully in 2 weeks - I've got to wait for the weather to warm up a bit and will still have to burn some gas to heat the pool to a more comfortable temp (our nights have still been in the high 30s to low 40s lately, and the pool is still running at about 53 degrees, a tad chilly for my thickest neoprene at 5 mils).

But I can say that while I was worried about how 'thick' the 2" diameter arms looked, they don't seem to interfere with folding as much as I thought. Here's an image of the arms I bought used from fltekdiver. He was also using them on an E330 housing, but with dual 125s more like you. The shorter arms are the larger diameter and the longer arms are thinner. If you search some of his posts you'll see he seemed to like them and said the rig was only very slightly negative in the water as configured with the 8" dome and the large focus light. I'm planning on using an 8" dome but a smaller (Fantasea Nano) focus light on a shorter ball adaptor off the 3-way clamp toward the bottom, so I might actually be a bit positive all told.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=8046

 

[gus055]

I knew fltekdiver had buoyancy arms but I did not know if they were 2" diameter or not. I see in the photo 2 of the arms are the 2" diameter ones. Are they 8" long or longer.

I am thinking about trying the 2" diameter ones that are 8" and 10" long, this would per side.
My set up now is 1 6" long ike arm and 1 9"l long ike arm per strobe. The whole camera set up will sink very slowely but I woul like for it to sink a little slower. I do not want my set up to be positive, just as close to neutral as posible. I know the deeper you go the camera becomes less bouyant. I looks like more trial and error for me.

 

[RTRski]

The short ones are 8", the long (not 2" diameter) are 12". Fltek said he was only slightly negative with that setup, so if you don't have the focus light and are using the smaller dome, you should be okay with about the same configuration I'd guess.

 

[gus055]

I have a focus light, (pelican 2410 reverse led) it is not as big as the Nocturnal light. I will order the ULCS 2" diameter X 8" long arms for starters. I am about 80% sure I will be diving San Diego this coming Sat and Sun.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[gus055]

I did get the arms 8" long x 2" diameter. I did not get to dive San Diego so I have not tried the arms on the camera in the water. I will be going back to San Diego in 2 or three weeks.

 

[RTRski]

Yeah, our weekend was busier than I expected so I didn't put the rig together and hop in the pool myself, either. (The pool was also at 56 degrees, so it was going to take a wee bit of gas to get it up into a comfortable temp range for my 5 mil wetsuit, too! brrr...)

 

[RTRski]

Gus:

I finally got in the pool this weekend. Rig (with 8" dome, dual DS50s) was a little negative. I'd say it took about 10 seconds to sink 5' from surface to the pool bottom. (Typical small suburban back-yard pool.) So in saltwater it would be a bit less negative, but still negative in my estimation. It didn't feel heavy in the water at all, and did tend to rotate 'dome up' but not to the point I felt any difficulty controlling it. Looking forward to trying it in real conditions....

 

[gus055]

After a few dives you will learn that the camera will always tend to rotate dome up at all dept's. I'm sure yours with the 8"dome has more of a tendancy to roll than mine with the 6" dome. I can handle the camera u/w easily with one hand, sometimes shooting with one hand only. Other SB members have said the samething. I am still going to persue with trying these monster arms. I have not dove my camera with the smaller flat port, so I would guess it would react diff than the dome port. I am planing on diving with the camera and flat port on April 19 and the dome on the 20.

 

[gus055]

My monster arms