Where do *you* put your floats?

[M DeM]

Howdy folks-

I use UL arms, and I've purchased some Stix floats. Having put them together, I'm afraid that I won't be able to get my strobes real close to the camera should I need it.

Here's my set up (those really are UL arms, though they look like buoyancy arms-- it's just the view).

 

[flyboy08]

I was going to say ....one on each bicep area, but never mind .

Heck of a rig there

 

[Chris Ross]

Arms a little short to add much flotation. My solution on a similarish rig is two INON mega float arms - "S" which each have 390g buoyancy, using a long clamp on the top elbow on each side facilitates getting the non flaot arm in close.

 

[Storker]

I guess it depends on your arm configuration and the number of floats you want to have. My rig has twin 5"+7" arms (5" towards the housing and 7" towards the strobe), and I've put two Stix floats on each of the 7" arms. I can get my strobes so close to the camera that they're touching the tray.

 

[pointy]

Here is a Flicker link to a set of floats I made out of Divinycell (high density foam). They suspend the housing in a way that doesn't require floats to be attached to strobe arms:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pointymccracken/albums/72157634002354975

 

[Chris Ross]

This photo illustrates what I guess is your problem:

On the left two fat arms are joined by a long clamp, they can be parallel, on the right a standard clamp is used the closest they can get is about 45° apart so the flash can't be bought in as close. You have a similar issue on your set of arms once you add floats to them. This is one of the reasons long clamps are offered. These are Nauticam clamps with INON float arms.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I go for more of this setup.

 

[M DeM]

This photo illustrates what I guess is your problem:
View attachment 497693

On the left two fat arms are joined by a long clamp, they can be parallel, on the right a standard clamp is used the closest they can get is about 45° apart so the flash can't be bought in as close. You have a similar issue on your set of arms once you add floats to them. This is one of the reasons long clamps are offered. These are Nauticam clamps with INON float arms.

Ah-ha.... Thanks!

 

[2ndjetty]

Note that the arm does not pass through the center of the Stix float (like on a float arm). If you put the skinny sides towards each other, even with floats on both arm segments, the arms will still be parallel even with small size clamp. It's a close as you could possibly go. Try it out before making any more purchases!

 

[M DeM]

I guess it depends on your arm configuration and the number of floats you want to have. My rig has twin 5"+7" arms (5" towards the housing and 7" towards the strobe), and I've put two Stix floats on each of the 7" arms. I can get my strobes so close to the camera that they're touching the tray.

I have to decide on my second set of arms. I have 4 six inch UL arms, but I need some more length for WA, and I'm thinking maybe instead of all these floats I should get buoyancy arms.

My housing is a Subal and it's kind of built like a tank. Real heavy.