Which Strobe Arm?

[scubajon]

Hi, I've recently bought a Inon D2000s strobe as part of the auction it came with a sea and sea strobe arm that was rigid and not very moveable.
I'm after some advice on what strobe arms others use and why they choose that arm.
I will be using the strobe with a canon s80 with a wide angle inon lens used some of the time so I would like the ability to change my strobe & arm setup to cater for this.

Also where did you get your arms from?

Thanks for any adivce,

Jon

[DDT uk]

Personally I use Sea and Sea bendy arms. The reason for this is that they are easy to move and adjust underwater. Whilst the flop around on land, underwater the strobes are neutral and so it isn't an issue.

I used to have a Ikelite arm on my old ikelite housing. I didn't get on with it at all. I found that adjusting the strobe positioning between shots a pain.

Daniel

[Mike W]

I use old non-ball-joint Ikelite arms 'cos I got them dirt cheap. They're not terribly user friendly, true, but they do the job and I'm used to them.

For my old compact I used the Sea and Sea Arm IV, which I bought years ago so I had a more compact rig when I took my Nik V on the club RIB. It isn't very adjustable, but the flash arm can be released from the base and held wherever it needs to be. Works well for single strobe setups.

[TimIngmire]

I use ULCS arms - nice and light and easily movable.

[Cussy]

I use a combination of Ikelite (bought second hand and from Cameras Underwater) and Ultralight Buoyancy arms (bought off GLOC through Digigreen). I found the combo good in Red Sea, but tend to use just the Ikelite parts for macro work. Once the ball joints bed in a bit with time they are easy to adjust underwater, but still remain rigid enough.

I've also used ManFishPhoto (bought off eBay) and Sea & Sea (bought from Alan James) flexible arms. I loved the S&S ones on my old setup, but found the ManFishPhoto ones too difficult to get into the right possition as the strobes have no weight underwater. If you have an Ikelite tray I could do you a good deal on a very little used ManFishPhoto strobe arm

I think you are going to get a lot of different answers here. GLOC sold me his Ultralight's as he didn't like them, I really like them (much better clamp than Ikelite). So you just need to find what works well for you.
Rob

[scubajon]

Thanks for the replies, here is a picture of the strobe arm I currently have and my housing, you will notice the wide angle lens adapter on the housing, with this attached I can not get it attached to the strobe arm, due to the attaching bolt not being deep enough. Has anyone used one of these arms with the adapter, if so how did you get it to attach?!

Picture:
http://www.steev.me.uk/~dave/jon/IMG_6828.gif

If I do replace the strobe arm, how do I know which parts to get, there seems to be a mind field of adapters, and sections! What sections of the ultrlight do other people use? What lengths should I be going for? I would like to be able to take both macro and wideangle photos.

Does anyone have any strobe arms up for sale?

Thanks for any advice,

Jon

[KenByrne]

You've got a standard Sea & Sea Tray. As it stands it only fits the arem you have. It looks like the multi stay arm shown here Alan James - For all you need in underwater photography If you look at the picture of the Sea Arm VI you'll see a small block with 2 srews. This attaches to the tray to allow the arm to slide on and lock in place. You'd need this part if you wanted to attach the flexible arm. Another alternative is to use the Ikelite adapter shown here Cameras Underwater: Ikelite Camera Trays and buy Ikelite or Green Force arms Cameras Underwater: GreenForce Lighting Arm Components and Adapters

Onother is to buy a new tray.

[Deano Diving]

i use a Ds125 Ike lite strobe the sea & sea bendy arm is just to light for the bigger strobe, but man fish photo arm will take that weight a lot better than the sea & sea.
Ike lite ball joint arm are just to much messing around with while underwater.

Another thing about the sea & sea bendy arm is when handing the camera up the boat the arm comes apart causing damage to the sync cord, but the man fish photo arm are very reliable with this and could not fault man fish arms. They are still on ebay prices start from about £29.00.

There is also www.manfishphoto.com, Underwater photographic arms and trays now