Sony has once again broken news of an exciting new development in the camera industry. The Sony A9 III mirrorless camera is the company's first full-frame camera with a global shutter. As a result, it provides professional photographers with the fastest-ever continuous burst shooting rate at full quality, capturing 24.6MP raw and JPEG images at a speedy 120fps.
There's no blackout during burst shooting, and the global shutter prevents the "rolling shutter" distortion that occasionally occurs with ordinary sensors by reading each pixel of the sensor simultaneously. The other exciting enhancement, is the ability to have flash sync speed's up to 1/80 000s, which isvery exciting for underwater photography.
This implies that you can shoot quickly moving subjects and camera movements, such as panning alongside cyclists, without having to worry about your images turning out distorted. There are surprisingly few compromises in this full-frame camera's record-breaking mode.
The below Sony A9 II underwater housings are our recommended housings for taking your camera underwater. Contact us at sales@bluewaterphotostore.com, for all your underwater photo and video needs! We can put together customized packages based on your requirements and offer free online training sessions to get you started.
Sony A9 III Underwater Housing Options
Marelux Sony A9 III Underwater Housing
*Superb Ergonomics, Durable, High-end Innovative Features*
Marelux continues to grow in the underwater housing market, and the Marelux Sony A9 III Underwater Housing will follow on from their previous popular housings for other camera models. Their high-end housings made from premium anodized aluminum designs are priced more competitively than their counterparts.
Aside from giving their housings a premium feel, the anodized aluminum makes them extremely tough and scratch-resistant, which is something adventure-loving photographers will love. And for an extra $200, you can order your housing in some custom color options.
A unique feature of Marelux housings, in general, is their ultra-wide port openings. In most cases, you can remove the port, change lenses, and even install the camera through the port opening. This saves you the time and hassle of disassembling the housing whenever you want to change lenses.
The housing is compatible with a vacuum value, but unfortunately, it's sold separately, as is the manual optical flash trigger.
Nauticam Sony A9 III Underwater Housing
*Excellent Ergonomics, User-friendly, Durable*
The Nauticam Sony A9 III underwater housing has excellent ergonomics and first-class build quality. Nauticam has put a lot of thought into designing the SOny A9 III underwater housing and laid all of the buttons and dials in easy-to-operate locations. An example of this is the way the shutter button and the focus button are positioned. They are almost opposite each other in the top right-hand corner, which makes locking onto your subjects and capturing them very intuitive; imagine a pinching motion.
Another testament to the thought that has gone into designing the Sony A9 III Nauticam housing is the bayonet-style port attachment system. Ports can be easily attached and removed from the housing with a simple quarter-turn twist.
Nauticam setups give you great versatility when it comes to lens choices, as well as the ability to use all Nauticam bayonet systems, flip adaptors, and optics.
Ikelite Sony A9 III 200DL Underwater Housing
*Light, Polycarbonate with Great Ergonomics, User-friendly, Durable*
The Ikelite 200DL Sony A9 III underwater housing is made from durable polycarbonate material, making it lightweight, easy to transport and use and immune to any form of corrosion that may become an issue with aluminum housings. A secondary benefit to being made from polycarbonate rather than aluminum is that it's more affordable than some of the other underwater housings on this list. Not only is it more affordable, but it also comes with a vacuum valve out of the box, which will help budding underwater photographers save even more money. You will have to purchase the vacuum pump separately, however. The vacuum system, combined with Ikelite's new dry lock (DL) port system and a clear back, which lets you see if there are any leaks, means your camera will be safe from water damage. This 200DL version which is depth rated to 200ft. is the big brother to the Ikelite 50DL (listed below).
The Ikelite to Canon TTL converter is one of the fastest and most accurate trigger systems out there, which is why many people turn to Ikelite housings.
Aquatica Sony A9 III Underwater Housing
*Built to last, Compact Size, Elegantly Engineered*
The Aquatica Sony A9 III underwater housing is a robust design that feels solid in hand thanks to its high-quality aluminum construction. Sea & Sea make excellent strobes, and as you'd expect, their housings are compatible with them with a TTL flash trigger. This combination of Sea & Sea housings and strobes makes for the most accurate strobe system on the market.
A large LCD screen on the back of the housing and a viewing window on top means you have an unobstructed with of your camera's setting and menu options while underwater, which is a big selling point for this housing. Another feature not found on many other housings is the glow-in-the-dark buttons to help you when diving at night or in dark waters.
About the Sony A9 III Mirrorless Camera
The new Sony A9 III Camera is the first camera to use a global shutter image sensor, which results in zero distortion in both still and motion pictures. With its new Pre-Capture feature, you can catch the action just before the shutter releases, which is ideal for situations when the shutter timing is unexpected, such as when photographing sports or animals. Maximum frame rate for this function is 120 fps.
Possibly the biggest highlight, especially for underwater photographers, is the development of the global shutter and it's affect on flash sync speeds. Sony claims to be able to Flash sync at any shutter speed-even the maximum of 1/80,000 second. This eliminates the need of any HSS adapters or triggers. So high speed movements underwater and syncing of flash outputs should be an issue of the past.
The Autofocus capabilities of this camera are also impressive. You have 8.0 stops of 5-axis optical in-body picture stabilization. Moreover, the 759-point phase detection autofocus system of the Sony A9 III camera covers 95.6% of the scene with AF precision as low as -5.0EV. XS and XL focus area spot sizes are another new feature on the A9 Mark III.
When it comes to underwater video capabilties, the global shutter technology entirely eliminates rolling shutter and banding aberrations, which is a major gain for video. The a9 III records UHD 4K video at up to 60 frames per second by capturing and downsampling the entire 6K image area. Additionally, without cropping, it can capture in 4K at up to 120 frames per second. For optimal quality, recording 10-bit 4:2:2 internally using All-I encoding is possible. Usinge the full-size HDMI port to send a 16-bit raw output to an external recorder that is compatible. Picture profiles such as S-Log3, S-Cinetone, and others can be used to optimize the image for your production workflow.
Quick Specs:
- World’s first global shutter image sensor
- Full-frame stacked 24.6 MP CMOS image sensor
- Advanced BIONZ XR processing engine
- 120 fps with AF/AE blackout-free shooting
- 1/80,000 shutter speed
- Flash Sync at any shutter speed
- Improved ergonomic grip design
- High-display quality EVF
- 4-axis multi-angle LCD monitor
- New Speed Boost button
- Pre-Capture option
Sample Underwater Images taken with the Sony A9 III Mirrorless Camera
Sony A9 III Underwater Review Video
THE NEXT STEPS AFTER YOU PICK YOUR HOUSING: