Advice Regarding My UW Equipment

[Salil Sahani]

Hello Everybody,

I Have a Nikon D300 And 105 VR and Planning to Buy 10-24mm Nikon
I Am Going for Ikelite Housing and DS-160 Strobes And UlCS Arms

My UW Equipment Would Be The Housing + ULCS Arms ( 2 - 8 Inch On Both Sides ) + Two DS-160 Strobes

Will This Setup Be Postively or Negatively Buoyant Under Water ?

Will a Coiled Lanyard Helpful In Attaching this Setup to My BCD while Descending or Ascending or When I Need My Hands Free ?

Regarding the TTL Sync Cord How Often Should I Clean It I Mean the O-Rings and the Metal Grooves ? Say If I Am Diving for 6 Days ( 12 Dives )

What Maintainance is Required for the ULCS Arms ?

Thankyou,
Salil

[tswinner]

Hi Salil,

I think your rig is going to be negatively buoyant in the water. You could get some of the stix foam to go over your ULCS arms. If you haven't bought your arms already you may want to get 2- 8"and 2 shorter arms. For me 2 -8" on each side is a lot of arm. I'm not a fan of lanyards but some people like them. I've gone 6 days without breaking down my sync cords but I'm a "if it's not broke don't fix it" kind of guy. If your new to uw photography you should probably check each night that you don't have any moisture in the sync port.

Hope that helps,

Todd

[Salil Sahani]

Thankyou Todd

Yeah I Am New to UW Photography And Still Have to Buy the Equipment as of Now

Thanks For Your Reply

Will those ULCS Buoyancy Arms One on Each Side Help ?

[tswinner]

I forgot about those ULCS buoyancy arms. I'm not sure how much lift those have. The foam is nice because it's light. I'm always getting dinged for overweight baggage.

[bvanant]

As Todd pointed out, this with the strobes will be negatively buoyant. The ULCS buoyancy arms don't really float, they just sink quite a bit less than the standard ULCS arms. I vote for the STIX foam that goes over the ULCS arms. Works well and if you get short segments you can tune the flotation to whatever you want. In practice, I think you want your rig to be just slightly negative.

Bill

[Salil Sahani]

Thankyou Bill and Todd

STIX Foam Is it a Brand or Something Or some Special Material used for the Foam ?

I dont think We get this Kind of Foam In India

Will have to Inquire About it

[scottg]

regarding lanyards, for what it's worth I always go hands-free when boat diving, although I do always have the option of clipping it to my BCD D-rings, because I have male/female clips on my D-rings and on my camera housing. (thanks to Kevin lee for that idea)

[Salil Sahani]

Thankyou Scott
But Can You Please tell Me How You Do that I Mean Clipping the Housing to Your BCD ?
Do We Have to Modify the Housing for that ?

[bvanant]

Thankyou Bill and Todd

STIX Foam Is it a Brand or Something Or some Special Material used for the Foam ?

I dont think We get this Kind of Foam In India

Will have to Inquire About it

Salil
You can get the Stix arms or floats from
http://stores.4gdphoto.com/StoreFront.bok
They make great stuff.
Bill

[tswinner]

Hey Salil,

I talk to the ULCS folks for you at the Long Beach Scuba Show today.
The buoyancy information is on their web site. They said right now it may be hard to find but in the future there will be a section with that info and how to weigh your housing in water. www.ulcs.com

Todd