Housing with Dome buoyancy

[Xterra]

Ok, so I got the Stix float belt that wraps around my extension port for the Zen 7 inch glass Dome.
Housing is a A7RIV Nauticam housing with a left Strobe arm 10in + 5in with Inon Z330 Strobe. Right Side is a 5in Arm with a Video light. (That single strobe and video light always served me well)
To make it more neutral buoyant (it was always very negative) I opted for the 12 piece float belt.
Now trying it in the pool with 11 pieces its just a tad negative, so should be "neutral" in the Ocean.
However now my Dome always wants to tilt upward. I called the Photo shop and was advised to add sticky vehicle wheel balance lead right under the Dome shade.
Seems a bit counterintuitive? Anyone can has advice how they done it?
Thanks

 

[Barmaglot]

That's exactly what I did with my SeaFrogs dome. Auto wheel weights on the back side of the dome base, added in small batches until the rig was neutral and in good trim. The sticky base does not seem to be affected by ocean water.

 

[Chris Ross]

The dome is full of air and you've added the buoyancy to the same area so it will want to twist upwards. I use float arms on my Nauticam Olympus rig with Zen dome and it's quite stable because the flotation is above the heaviest component. Looking at the standard belt with 10 pieces they are 56gr each so 11 pieces = 616 grams of lift. You can add weight to the dome but you'll also need to add more floats to make it neutral again which if it goes in the same spot will need more weight. on the dome.

You could use a couple of float arms - say 2x 210 gr INON ML arms - one on each side in place of your regular arms and off load the same amount from your weight belt so you would end up with 3-4 segments on the belt. It should be more stable because of where you have placed the buoyancy - above all of the weight.

 

[Alek Mikolajczyk]

Barmaglot, I have the same exact problem with my Nauticam Sony a74iv set-up where my dome is twisting upwards. I am hesitant to attach the car wheel weights as I heard they rust and I don't want to damage the dome structure. How is that handling on your dome so far and what arm set-up are you using?

 

[Barmaglot]

I bought the dome some two years ago; not a spot of rust on the weights so far.

I'm using twin 8" arms on both sides; regular ones for wide-angle with dome and 300g carbon fiber floats for macro. However, in your case, with an aluminium housing and a larger camera, you will probably need more float capability on the arms.

 

[chris kippax]

If lead rusts you have bigger problems than housing buoyancy.

Just use these ones, easy to get and easy to use/remove.

Wheel Tire Balance Weights Wheel Tyre Balance Sticker for Cars Motorbike RC boat | eBay

 

[Xterra]

The weights won't rust, they are lead (Lead does not rust)
However I went away from the Dome floats (I have a glass dome) and now have arm floats only. Works MUCH better.

Barmaglot, I have the same exact problem with my Nauticam Sony a74iv set-up where my dome is twisting upwards. I am hesitant to attach the car wheel weights as I heard they rust and I don't want to damage the dome structure. How is that handling on your dome so far and what arm set-up are you using?