Aquatica has released renderings and specifications for their AN-5n housing for the Sony NEX-5n EVIL camera. The new housing will feature controls aligned with those on the camera, dual fiber optic flash connectors, a quick access lever to activate and deactivate the internal flash and a closure latch design “borrowed” from Amphibico. An adaptor to allow the use of standard Aquatica ports will be released soon and the port selection will include compatibility with the new Sony 30mm macro lens.

Prices and availability dates are still to be announced.

Aquatica AN-5n housing for the Sony NEX-5n camera.

The Aquatica Team is proud to announce the release of the Aquatica AN-5n housing for the Sony NEX-5n camera. Sony has once again made an already good camera into a better one, adding yet more punch on the DSLR size sensor and still maintaining the size of a compact camera; this camera with its ever growing lens selection and after market accessories will fill the needs of many underwater photographers seeking a high level of imaging performance in an easy to pack travel system.

This recent upgrade of the Sony NEX-5 has made the NEX-5n even better for the task of underwater imaging, with a much improved shutter lag and excellent focusing in both still and video, It was only natural that the same approach be taken with this new housing, the new design benefits from the latest technology and improvements available.  As for the housing, with almost 30 years of designing and constructing underwater housings, it was easy to integrated an improved design to the starting block that was the already very success full Aquatica AN-5 housing, it’s state of the art high tech look, features time proven methods of construction and sound optical principles. Aquatica, as usual, only use the highest grade of corrosion resistant materials for its housings construction and has been designed and built by an experienced team at our Canadian based headquarters, a country famous for the ruggedness of its diving condition. The housing shell is anodized and powder coated to a smooth finish that will resist years of extensive use, all controls are double sealed in order to face the 300ft/90 meter depth rating assigned to this housing, every shaft and push button is manufactured to a mirror smooth surface and is made of the finest grade stainless steel, Montreal is the third largest aeronautically industrialized city in the world, this strategically give us access to the best raw materials and tools available on this planet. Bottom line is; if the material used is good enough to trust your life to it, then it’s good enough to protect your camera from the harsh environment it will be faced with.

Special care has been taken to locate the controls at their best possible positions and the basic layout of the camera has been reproduced externally to retain the visual comfort of not having to search relocated controls. Even with the extremely small size of this housing, AQUATICA has managed to build in a quick access lever to bring the internal flash up and down allowing for quickly alternating between strobe illuminated and ambient light, a pair of built-in dual optical strobe connectors are provided, this features is not an optional accessory and is included in the Aquatica AN5n housing price, aside from assuring a sure fire exposure every time, it maintains the housings at its original compact size and it is unlikely to come loose, be lost or forgotten like an external adapter would.

Our recent acquisition of Amphibico, the legendary manufacturer of quality video housings, has allowed us to integrate their time honored method of securely closing theirs housings. That latching system was designed for professional high end video housings worth tens of thousands of dollars and is arguably one of, if not, the best closure system designed for underwater housing ever. Its rotary cam action, coupled with an additional security mechanism means that unintentional opening is prevented from happening.

Lastly given the absence of a regular view finder our design staff integrated a 15 degree of angle to the rear LCD screen; this was done to give the user a much more comfortable position for viewing in diving conditions.

A very compact housing at just 165mm /6.5” of width, a height of 141mm /5.5” (including optical bulkhead) and a mere thickness of 84mm/3.3”, the production model should tip the scale without the camera at less than 1Kg/2.2lbs.