Ikelite Announces Underwater Housing for the Sony HX9v

The Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V is Sony's latest super-zoom camera

By Michael Zeigler

Ikelite recently announced the release of their latest underwater housing, this time for the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V. True to Ikelite form, the Sony Cybershot underwater housing is high quality, durable, built to last, and backed by Ikelite's long-standing reputation for excellence.

All camera controls are fully functional through the housing and depth rated to 200ft (60m). Two threaded mounts on the bottom of the housing allow for the secure attachment of optional trays and lighting accessories. This allows you to customize your Ikelite housing with as few, or as many options you desire.  Whether it's a streamlined housing alone, or with the optional handles, lens options, strobes, or video lights.

Ikelite Sony HX9v underwater housing

The Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V

This is a feature-packed travel-zoom camera, offering a 16x, 24-384mm zoom lens, 16.2 megapixels, built-in GPS tracking complete with a compass, full 1080p high-definition video recording with stereo sound, and 3D still images. You can read the full, in-depth review at photographyblog.com.

Other key features include:

• 3 inch LCD screen.

• 10 fps burst shooting mode at full resolution.

• ISO range of 100-3200.

• Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode which cuts camera-shake while you’re shooting handheld HD video.

• Full Manual shooting mode.

• Built-in GPS

• Unbelieveably long zoom! 

• Reviews on image quality are fairly decent, given the zoom length of the lens

• We expect incredible supermacro with wet diopter such as the Dyron +7, Subsee +5 or Inon UCL-165.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-HXV9

Cons of the HX9v

• Range of apertures is unfortunately rather limited to just two settings at either end of the lens (f/3.3 or f/8.0 at 25mm and f/5.9 or f/14 at 384mm).

• No Aperture or Shutter priority modes.

• No support for the RAW file format.

• No true aperture control (iris only. The 2nd aperture setting appears to be implemented with neutral density filter).

• Due to the long length of the lens, the Ikelite Sony HX9 underwater housing will not support wide-angle lenses, just an external dome port.

Specs on the Ikelite Sony HX9v underwater housing

• Size: 7x5x5.9 inches
• Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Tray & handle optional
• Comes with  flash diffuser, flash deflector
• Cost: $400 USD in the USA

Where to Buy

Bluewater Photo & Video will have the Ikelite housing in stock, and can help recommend to you the best possible strobes, filters, macro and wide-angle lenses for this setup.