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Best Underwater Housing for Sony Alpha a6500
Choosing an underwater housing for your camera can be a daunting task. We want to make things easier for you, so we’ve created this mini-guide to help you decide what’s the best underwater housing for your Sony Alpha a6500!
What are the options?
Sea and Sea MDX-a6300 Underwater Housing for Sony a6000/a6300/a6500
Nauticam NA-A6500 Underwater Housing for Sony A6500
Ikelite Underwater Housing for Sony Alpha A6100, A6300, A6400, A6500
* The Fantasea FA6500 has been the most popular housing for the Sony A6500, but has been discontinued and likely won’t be back in production.
Comparison Chart
| Sea and Sea MDX-a6300 | Nauticam NA-A6500 | Ikelite A6500 | |
| Material | Aluminum | Aluminum | Polycarbonate |
| Port Lock System | Compatible with NX Ports and ML Ports | N85 Bayonet | Dry Lock Micro |
| Controls | Full controls | Full controls | Controls for all camera functions except AF/MF/AEL switch lever and Diopter adjustment dial |
| Vacuum System | Available separate | Available separate, circuitry included | Available separate |
| Default Bulkhead (strobe connection) | Dual fiber-optic cable ports, accepts optional N-type, 2-pin sync connector | Dual fiber optic ports | Ikelite manual bulkhead included. TTL converter sold separate |
| Depth Rating | 250ft/75m | 330ft/100m | 200ft/60m |
| Grips Included | None | Both sides, with ball mounts | None |
| Price (USD) | $1,799.95 | $1,840.00 | $775.00 |
Conclusion
The A6500 is a very popular camera for underwater photography. The Fantasea housing used to be our most popular housing, but sadly has been discontinued. The Nauticam housing is the best high-end housing for this camera, so if you’re looking for the best and your budget allows it, definitely go for that one.
If you’re limited by your budget, Ikelite is an excellent choice. While not as ergonomic as Nauticam or Fantasea, it’s still a rather small and very reliable housing at a reasonable price. By getting the Ikelite housing along with strobes, you can get a better overall package for the same price as just the Nauticam housing, and strobes are incredibly important as we’ve mentioned many times.
All housings can trigger strobe optically, which is great and ensures you can get more affordable strobes like the Inon S-2000 or S&S YS-01.
Most relevant lenses are supported by all housings.
Being able to add an additional powerbank on the Nauticam housing is a huge advantage to videographers, which allows them to shoot longer videos without going up for a swap, or simply for photographers that don’t want to open their housing mid-day.
If you still can’t decide which housing is best for you, reach out to us via the online chat! We’re always happy to help 🙂
Visit his personal portfolio at www.ranmorphoto.com.
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