Buying a new strobe setup - should I go flex arm or rigid?

[Reeveseye]

A quick overview of my situation - I've been doing underwater photography for several years now, currently shooting a Canon G9 in an Ikelite housing with a Sea & Sea YS-90 stobe mounted on a flex arm. I've grown tired of having to do all my exposures on manual, so I'm switching to an Ikelite flash so I can get true TTL.
So my question is this: since I'm going to buy the strobe package from Ikelite that (depending on my preference) could utilize either a flex arm or the more rigid arm setup, which should I go with? I've always used a flex arm, so I have no experience with the rigid setup. Who here has used both, what's your preference between the two, and why? Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[H2O Photo Pros]

Hi John. I see you are in the OC, come on by our store and you can put your hands on both so you can really see the difference.

To answer your question, in my eyes rigid is really the way to go. You mention going to an Ike strobe, are you looking at the DS-51 or the DS-160? If the latter, than rigid is a must due to the weight of that strobe.

Although flex is easy to maneuver, it really is not as flexible in positioning as ball joint arms. They are also much weaker. I have literally had a couple of customers who handed their systems up to the DM who reached down to grab it by the arms and the arms popped off! For me, using the ball joint aluminum arms as handles allows my system (no matter how small or large) to be handed down to me, or picked up from the boat without any concern. Even on my 40lbs Gates EX1R right with lights, The DMs can reach down and pick it up by my ULCS arms.

Stop on by and play with a set in your hands!

 

[Gilligan]

Mike hit the nail on the head.

I have used both and currently use the rigid arms.

The range of motion of the rigid arms is far greater than the flex type.

 

[Banon]

+1 for rigid.

I started with a 12" flex arm with my G9 in Canon housing. Later added another 4" to it because it was a cheap way to get some additional flexibility on strobe position. This made the strobe flop around a little more during handling, and didn't really add that much flexibility on positioning for shots.

I recently moved to a rigid arm setup with Ultralight. I had to add some bouyancy since the Ultralight arms are more negative underwater than the flex arms, but I'm very happy with the change.

As previously mentioned, rigid arms provide MUCH greater range of strobe position and MUCH better support/security for heavy strobes.

Go rigid, you won't regret the choice. When you are buying, consider the overall bouyancy of your rig and buy bouyancy arms if necessary to compensate. Your forearms will thank you at the end of a long dive! You should be able to find the undwater weight specs for your housing and strobes. Not sure about the Ikelite arms.

Banon

 

[Reeveseye]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I had a feeling the opinions would be for rigid, but it was good to confirm it. I'll be buying a DS-51 with the rigid arm setup in the near future.

 

[muzikbiz22]

1- ULCS, no question.
2 - Take a look at the Sea & Sea YS-01. Just my two cents.