For my latest blog I’m going to take a look at the arm systems available for use with strobes and video lights when doing underwater photography or videography. I’ll compare the different designs and look at some of the range of arms produced by various manufacturers. Where prices are included they are current at time of writing if you buy them from us.
Flexi vs Ball ended
For underwater photography there are two styles of arm for mounting strobes or video lights on. Those are ball ended arm systems and flexi arms. Ball ended arm systems use rigid lengths of arm tipped with 1” balls held together with clamps. Flexi arms tend be made of interlocking plastic sections with a strobe mount at one end and either a fitting to attach to a tray or actually built into a tray.
Flexi arms are often a cheaper option than a ball and clamp arm system. But despite their name they actually tend to give you less range of movement for your strobe than a typical setup of two lengths of ball ended arm with three clamps. To be able to position a strobe at any point around your housing using a flexi arm it has to be quite long and then it will struggle to hold position underwater when using a heavy video light or strobe or when diving in strong currents.
A picture of me from ten years ago with my first strobe and arm setup using a flexi arm that cost £25 on a Nauticam tray. Definitely a false economy. After this trip I bought two lengths of Nauticam ball ended arm and three clamps and have never regretted it.
Flexi arms often have a tendency to be quite noisy with each position change being accompanied by squeaking. They also can pop apart if over bent especially with use and age. If you do use them I’d recommend threading a cord of some sort through them from top to bottom and securing it in such a way that if the arm comes apart you won’t lose your strobe.
Also it’s not possible to add holders for wet lenses to flexi arms and the options for including buoyancy floats in a flexi arm setup are limited to sections of foam fitted over the arm. Adding that type of float such as those made by StiX will reduce the flexibility of the arms further.
Bearing these various shortcomings in mind and also because the range of flexible arms available is quite limited in the UK, I don’t tend to sell them. In fact the only flexi arm options we have in our range are some by Deepshots that have 1” balls at each end giving something of a middle ground between the two systems.
The Deepshots ball ended flexi arms come in lengths of 26cm (£28), 32cm (£30) and 40cm (£32).
Standard Ball Ended Arms
Here I’m using the word standard to cover what is the most common style of ball ended arm on the underwater photography market. These are often referred as lattice arms and because at one time the market was dominated by one brand you may find them referred to as Ultralight arms even though most aren’t now made by the company that at one time was synonymous with them.
These arms are rigid and made from aluminium with a ball at each end and a lattice body. The industry standard has become a 1” (25mm) diameter ball and these balls have an o ring fitted into a groove around them. The o ring is there to help clamps maintain grip and hold in place without having to be so tight that the strobe position can’t be adjusted underwater. Clamps and arms using this system should be interchangeable but quality does vary.
While there isn’t huge variation in design, cost varies substantially and this is reflected to a degree in the finish and the metal used. Very cheap arms may have inappropriate o rings made from compounds that are too hard or soft for purpose or in some cases the alloy used in production isn’t up to the job. I have had a workshop customer tell me he bought some arms very cheaply and had one snap the first time he tried it.
The range of brands that produce these arms is substantial. We currently supply options by Deepshots, DivePro, Nauticam and INON in a range of lengths. The stated length of an arm is usually the part between the two balls rather than the overall length.
Deepshots produce arms that are 100mm (£18), 150mm (£24), 200mm (£28) and 250mm (£34). Their design is nothing out of the ordinary but the quality is reasonable. The finish is matt black and the o rings are green. They will take lens holders by Inon, Nauticam and Fantasea.
Nauticam arms as with their other products have a quality feel. They aren’t as light as some cheaper arms but the metal is good quality. Even the o rings are long lasting while still giving the right amount of grip. The finish is a more gloss black than the Deepshots arms and the o rings are ‘Nauticam’ blue. You do pay a premium for them. The lengths of lattice arm available are 125mm (£44), 200mm (£51), 300mm (£54) and 400mm (£56).
If you can afford them Nauticam arm systems will give you a robust and reliable setup that will last you a long time. This is a typical arrangement using 125mm and 200mm lattice arms with three standard clamps. The tray is a Nauticam Easitray II and adjustable right handle with a Fantasea FG7X II housing mounted on it and the strobe is an Inon S2000.
DivePro arms are hard anodised in black. Lengths available are 150mm (£29.95), 200mm (£39.95) and 250mm (£44.95). The longer two lengths are distinctive in having ‘DIVEPRO’ cut out of the arm bodies rather than a normal lattice.
DivePro’s arm range. These arms don’t suit having lens holders fitted to them compared to the more traditional lattice arms as the bolt for the holder may not fit through the cut out lettering.
Sitting at the top of the pricing options are the arms by INON. These definitely look stylish with the Inon name cut out of them and a gloss black finish with red o rings. The text cut out is the same size on each arm so depending on which length you get you have part of INON, the whole word or some of it repeated on your arm. You pay a bit of a premium for this level of style. The lengths and prices available are 120mm (£55), 150mm (£55), 200m (£55) and 320mm (£63).
If you want the full INON get a 150mm arm. The cut out lettering is deliberately wide so that unlike the DivePro arms they can easily be fitted with lens holders.
Single Ball Arms AKA YS to Ball Adaptors
Several manufacturers make arms with a ball at one end and a fitting at the other for a so called YS mount. YS mounts are found on strobes in particular those made by Sea & Sea who are the originators of the design. You do also get some lights with these fittings and it’s common to find trays with flexi arms having the fitting for these mounts built-in rather than a ball mount.
The shortest of these ball arms often get called YS Adaptors because they convert strobes with fixed YS mounts such as the Sea & Sea YS-01 and YS-03 to be used with a ball and clamp arm set up.
Deepshots make a YS to ball adaptor (£17) and Nauticam’s 50mm Single Ball Arm (£28) does the same job and is a similar length. INON make an aluminium YS Adapter (£27) similar to the others but they didn’t just stop there. They also do the YS Adapter MV (£7) which is plastic rather than aluminium, the Double YS Adapter MV (£12) which is plastic with a ball in the centre and a YS fitting either side and the YS Adaptor WB MV (£12) which has a ball mount in the middle another ball on one side and a YS on the other. The idea behind the last three are to be able to mount two lights or strobes or one of each together on a single arm setup.
INON’s YS Adaptor even has o rings around the socket to help ensure the correct fit without your strobe being loose.
As well as their short Single Ball Arm, Nauticam produce versions that are 75mm (£33), 100mm (£44) and 125mm (£51). These can give you some extra length on an arm setup when using one normal ball ended arm and two clamps combined with a strobe or light with a YS mount while not needing an extra clamp. While this keeps your cost down it does reduce the range of movement. INON also do two YS Arms a 166mm and 203mm in the style of their standard lattice arms both of which are £63.
STICK ARMs
The shortest lengths of Nauticam Ball Ended arms don’t have a lattice section, instead they are just a pair of 1” balls joined by a rod. These are available in 75mm (£33) and 100mm (£40).
Nauticam short arms have a ‘stick’ that is the same diameter as the ball stem on their longer lattice arms, making them as robust.
INON yet again go further with this style of arm. They produce five lengths of what they call Stick Arms, 75mm (£15), 120mm (£21), 150mm (£25), 200mm (£29) and 320mm (£32). Having used these arms myself I can report that they are surprisingly sturdy. Each arm has a varying number of holes on it for attaching lens holders or extra mounts to. There are also specific floats available that fit around them. In addition the ball ends of the four shorter arms all have screw holes for attaching them to INON’s Underwater Tripod Hub to make a small tripod. Bear in mind that at £205 for the hub you’ll need to be pretty keen on using a tripod underwater to use that particular feature of the arms.
Also in the INON range are a series of ams with extra ball mounts built-in to their length for attaching extra items using clamps. These Multi Ball Arms come in 120mm (£25) and 150mm (£30) both of which have an extra ball in the centre, 260mm (£34) and 380mm (£41) with an extra ball near one end and 320mm (£38) and 440m (£48) with extra balls near both ends. While they are useful for adding focusing or video lights to, these arms may also suit be using as ‘cross pieces’ between the handles of a tray to add rigidity and if fitted with one of the special floats for stick arms reducing how negative your setup is.
A common use for an Inon Multi Ball arm is for mounting a small focusing light
EXTENDABLE ARMS
Being able to extend or retract your strobe arms while in the water can be useful for changing between small subjects and large. although a typical two arm setup with three clamps will give plenty of range adjustment. Predictably INON have produced something to cater for those underwater photographers looking for more range of movement, but you need a good sized budget for them. Their Carbon Telescopic arms come in four lengths 189mm to 272mm (£61), 260mm to 495mm (£96), 350mm to 770mm (£110), 440mm to 1035mm (£122) and can be fitted with a choice of two sizes of float. They also double as tripod legs when used with the previously mentioned INON UW Tripod Hub. If that wasn’t enough a single one can be used as a pole for an action camera.
INON’s suggested setups for using their telescopic arms with strobes is to just have one arm for each strobe and two clamps and adjust the arm length.
PaRTING SHOTS
I hope this blog has been helpful to you and given you an idea of what is available. I’ve deliberately not gone into to detail regarding buoyancy arms and floats as I’ll cover that in another blog in the future as it’s another big subject.
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