142 replies to this topic

[eskasi]

Ok.....I got my Stix arm set....6in and 9in......after reading the leaflet that came with it, it mentioned that I should not over tighten the clamps. How tight is tight?

[cor]

The things you do during a safety stop with buoyancy arms. Video by Marc Weiss, totally mangled into lowres by me.

[WaterWorks]

just emailed Cor and Julie this query but they may be on a boat and so am gonna try this tact...

my Amphibico Phenoms are neutral - yes... lovely....

my lights are heavy little £$%£$*.......

as such the whole setup tries to turn upside down underwater... with a lot of force..... straining the arms etc..... (my arms, I mean - i'm only skinny!)

with floats on the ARMS surely the centre of gravity (lift) is going to be incorrect and the mass of the lights is still going to try to offset the buoyancy of the foam, right?

questions are -

1. whether or not the housing will rotate into the upside down position with such force that I am still trying to fight it all the time? Taking a few seconds to revolve through 180 degress is managable, at present, I let go of the housing and it flips over in a second!!!!

2. whether or not with the light arms fully extended, the system is more stable?

3. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - whether or not it would be better to simply use floats on the lights themselves therefore totally offsetting their negative tendancies and forever forgetting about any previous probs that an unbalanced system may offer the user? as other posters have mentioned, when moving the lights around it totally offsets the centre of lift and things get all wonky very quickly.. When shooting macro I use a close up light for the subject and a soft fill light out on a fully extended arm - which throws my system into a wobbly unstable little bucking bronco....

look forward to any feedback from anyone regarding these little woes....

cheers in advance, WPers....

Chris