BUILD YOUR OWN SNOOT

[LastAdventures 3]

Hello, does anyone have experience in building a own snoot with water tubes etc.? I tried to build one and also attached a laser pointer to see where to aim. But I have a problem to connect the plastic tubes with my strobes... Underwater it was falling off very often. Any tip or idea would be helpful! Thanks a lot :-)

[TimG 62]

Hi Michael

 

Yep, I built one using plumbing piping whilst I was working in Lembeh. I made two which fitted on my Inon Z240 strobes. I managed to find a piece of piping which was just slightly wider than the diameter of the strobe. I then lined the pipe with foam which provided enough grip to hold the snoot in place. The fitting was pretty secure.

 

I then used 2-3 pieces of plumbing pipe in decreasing sizes which connected and funnelled the light into a smaller circle. The length of the whole snoot was about 17 cms with the final opening about 5 cms

 

I can't send you a pic, sorry, as I got rid of them some years ago. It was a really fun project but I can't honestly say they worked terribly well - although i did get one cracking shot of a ribbon eel. As everyone says about snoots, aiming was tricky (mild understatement!) and the grey colour of the piping seemed to absorb some of the light from the Inon focussing lights. It was all pretty hit and miss.

 

I decided to give it another go last year but this time bought a Retra LSD. Fabulous if expensive and aiming is marginally easier.

[Davide DB 493]

I needed a snoot for my Keldan Luna 8 lights so last year I started for fun a small DIY project.

In the end i bought two small lights specifically made for macro. My Luna 8 are huge and they have large reflector so the whole "thing" was a benemoth.

On the other hand i guess that for a strobe it should be a fairly simple DIY project. The best option nowadays would be using a 3D printer but a quick visit to a hardware store could be the fastest route: basically you have to be lucky to find a pipe of the correct diameter for your strobe.

I share some photos just to illustrate steps involved. I used PVC plumbing pipes (there are standard diameter reductions) and a white kitchen range hood pipe that had exactly the same diameter of my Keldan Luna 8. The snoot had a snug fit but I added some bungee for safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I painted it black for a sleek look

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TimG 62]

Davide's looks pretty much the same as mine - I even painted mine black too....

 

The two orangey coloured PVC pipe bits were, I found, the key thing. As Davide says, available at hardware stores.

[Davide DB 493]

Davide's look pretty much the same as mine - I even painted mine black too....

 

 

A good look is the rule #1

 

I don't know if honeycomb diaphragm is really necessary for photography...

[LastAdventures 3]

Thanks for your response! I will try to get a better connecting part with a 3d printer. Here you go with my laser-construction:

Edited April 11, 2019 by LastAdventures

[LastAdventures 3]

here we go:

[Davide DB 493]

Do we need a license for those?

 

Hahaha

[TimG 62]

Wow! That’s wicked!

[Chris Kippax 43]

I am all for DIY but the Retra snoot is miles ahead. The Retra snoot is expensive but also in a class of its own. I used a DIY solution not unlike yours but once funds were available I purchased the Retra. I would not go back.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Chris Kippax

[phoenixkawa 0]

here we go:IMG_4131.klein.800.JPG

This is so useful! Thanks

[rfkissling3 1]

Anyone ever try making a Retra-like columnator with pipe and lenses?

[drywh 10]

Anyone ever try making a Retra-like columnator with pipe and lenses?

 

[hyp 112]

You can't just post these pictures without any explanations... I've just done a 3D printed design for a snoot for a Weefine Smart Focus 3000 lamp, but it seems to eat an awful lot of it's power... Would be very interested in finding out how to DIY an optical solution that reduces the power loss.

[drywh 10]

Convex lenses converge light. Convex lenses must be placed in air, not in water.