NEX-5 with Acquapazza housing

[ScubaMoMo]

Two days ago i finally received my NEX-5 Acquapazza housing, 18-55mm port, Zoom & Focus gear, M67 adaptor, dome port & Inon dome. I felt like a small child getting its christmas presents when i first opened the box. Today i finally had some time to take a look and take some pictures of it. I decided to buy this housing rather then any of the other availabe ones due to its obvious advantages. First of all it is the only one which offers the possibility of zoom and manual focus control with a quite clever magnetic control mechanism licensed from Inon. Also they give you the choice of choosing a tilted screen port which in my personal experience makes it much easier to look at the screen. The next advantage is that it offers the same shutter control like the big DSLR housings, which are much more convinient to use, because you don't need to lift your hand away from the handle while you are taking pictures. Therefor giving you more control of the equipment. Also as far as i know its the only housing offering ports for Alpha Macro 50 & 100mm lenses at the moment including the choice to use the zoom and i think also the focus gear. The only downside is that its not easy to get outside of Japan and unfortunately due to it being from a japanese manufacturer expensive price if you count all the extras in like ports and zoom/focus gear.

Many many pictures and more detailed infos here on my facebook page.

If you guys are interested in this and have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[thkhoo]

Beautiful setup ScubaMoMo! We need to go diving again soon, I want to check out your new toy. I'll bring my Nauticam NA-NEX-5 setup so you can have a play around as well.

 

[scubadh]

Aquatica makes a housing for it as well....any thoughts on that one over the others...the japanese one looks great....how do you order?

 

[ScubaMoMo]

I personally have only seen this and the Nauticam and Recsea housings and i chose the Acquapazza due to its advantages. Downside is that it easily is a thousand bucks more expensive then e.g. the Nauticam housing with dome and 1855 solution. I'm not aware of any seller selling this housing overseas. I personally bought it in japan directly in a shop and let a friend ship it over to me when it was ready (takes about a week).

 

[slowhands]

There is a worldwide source for Aquapazza housings,
UWdigitalcamera.com :: DSLR housing :: ACQUAPAZZA :: ACQUAPAZZA APSO-NEX5 housing for SONY DSC-NEX5

Yuzo has been supplying us with goodies for many years, a great seller.

 

[JackConnick]

I looked carefully at this housing and liked many of the design features you noted. However the gearing and internal mechanisms didn't look that robust and even the manufacturer admitted they were made for the Japanese market that might dive a couple of times a year vs. the US market where equipment is used much more often. I also was put off by the cost, mostly due to a terrible exchange rate, although it probably wouldn't be as much as $1k difference.

Have you shot the Alpha 50 macro uw? We did a test with it on a Nauticam NEX5 and found the AF was hopeless, even with a strong focus light.

I would be interested in how this housing stands up to use, certainly it has some nice features.

Jack

 

[ScubaMoMo]

I haven't tried it yet. My first dives with it will be in roughly 2 weeks in Bali. But i definatelly cannot agree that the gearing is not robust. It works very very smooth out of the water. But anyway i'm not here to sell this housing. I have no personal benefit in it. Just giving a personal opinion of the housing i bought

I didn't buy the Alpha ports because i'm more the type of diver which likes to switch between normal and macro in a dive with the use of a diopter. So i will go with my 1855 and a Inon diopter for now and maybe buy a emount macro lens when it comes.

The price definatelly was a 1k $ more then what the Nauticam solution would have cost me. Due to exchange rate i paid roughly 290000YEN (which is already 10% discounted from the list price). This included NEX-5 Acquapazza housing with tilted screen, 18-55mm port, Zoom & Focus gear (very expensive!), M67 adaptor, dome port & Inon dome. In HK i would pay for the Nauticam solution including all those roughly 20k HK$, which is roughly 1k US$ less. In japan though the price would have been not so much different, because Nauticam stuff there is a bit more expensive. The standard housing btw. between all of those i saw (Nauticam, Recsea & Acquapazza) was nearly the same price in japan with only about 10k YEN difference.

 

[OdaWater]

Last week I also got my APSO-NEX5 housing with the 18-55mm port, Zoom gear, dome port & Inon dome. WHAT a nice housing! And the ports are also very very high-class!
Looking forward to take it down there. Don't regret to get the APSO. Also considered the Aquatica. But the thing with the slant cover for tilted screen, the trigger type shutter lever and the magnetic zoom-gear made my decision. It's fantastic! And you really can tilt the screen - up and down
Im wondering if the new macro-lens for the NEX-5 will fit into the 18-55mm port. Already ordered the lens, but no delivery-date so far...I'll post again if it's here.

@ ScubaMoMo: Did you try to shoot without an external strobe? Overwater, the internal strobe with the diffusor is quite nice. But it's a PITA to mount it on the housing/port. Did you mount the diffusor once??
But I think I'll never go without my INON S2000 I'm just curious.

 

[ScubaMoMo]

@OdaWater: Nah didn't try the diffusor at all unfortunately.

 

[Zvalle]

Hi, Have plans for get a APSO-NEX5. (with slant cover)
Do anyone of you dive with dry-gloves? It look tights between the bottom at the back, maybe to tight for dry-gloves?