AirLock Vacuum System with Manual Valve

No camera should dive unprotected from human error.
Most camera housing floods are preventable with good assembly technique, but even the most experienced shooter can get in a rush and make a fatal error. The AirLock vacuum verification system will verify your housing is leak-proof before you jump in the water.

AirLock is the best vacuum system on the market:

• Impact resilient stainless / aluminum construction
• Deepest rated valve design to minimize human error
• Low cost adapters allow one Airlock for many housings
• Lowest profile right angle design for minimum snags
• 360 degree valve rotation for easy access in tight spaces
• Tool free removal for easy travel packing
• Free lifetime tech support

By creating negative pressure inside the housing and monitoring the vacuum pressure, the AirLock will verify your housing is leak-proof before you even jump in the water.

1) Custom bulkhead for your camera housing
We offers a custom bulkhead for all popular camera housing brands.  Select the model for your housing brand and choose your favorite mounting position. The bulkheads are easy to install yourself. You can move your AirLock system to different housings by simply buying extra bulkheads.

2) Waterproof one-way valve
We selected the best industrial one-way valve made of rugged stainless steel and installed it at a right angle. This low profile valve can be quickly installed on the bulkhead without the use of tools, thus users can choose to remove the valve for easy travel. However, due to our unique right angle design with free rotation, most users will find the valve can just be left on the housing at all times.

3) Inline vacuum gauge
The anodized aluminum vacuum gauge is easy to read and snaps into the quick release fitting on the one-way valve. This gauge is included on both the AirLock Manual and AirLock Electronic systems. On the AirLock Manual version, this gauge is snapped into the valve to verify that the housing is still at the correct vacuum pressure. Thus even if you find yourself in the middle of the ocean without a battery for your AirLock Electronic, this good ol mechanical gauge will keep you going.

4) Hand pump
To further make our AirLock system field friendly, we use a “wine saver” type pump to pull the vacuum. These pumps are very lightweight and also could be found on boats and resorts in a pump loss emergency. Our high quality version will pump down most SLR housings in 10-15 pumps.

Lens ports on SLR camera housings can be accidentally rotated and cause vignetting in the image corners or worse cause a leak. When pumped down to normal vacuum pressures, the AirLock will lock a lens port such that it is impossible to remove by hand. When pumped to a slightly higher vacuum, the AirLock will even prevent port rotation and keep the corners of your image vignette free.

In our underwater photography classes, we always teach students to dunk their camera housing in a fresh water rinse tank and inspect for bubbles which are the symptoms of a leak. Now armed with an AirLock, you can check for leaks without ever getting the camera housing wet. For most people a 10 minute verification of vacuum will be all that’s needed to jump in the water. For more critical applications, you can leave a vacuum overnight and verify its integrity in the morning. AirLock is inexpensive insurance that will help you identify a problem before it causes damage.

Airlock is the most human error proof valve
After testing many different valve designs, we selected the Swagelok stainless steel valve. It’s more expensive, but it was the only valve in our tests that offered the best protection from impact, saltwater corrosion, and most importantly the best protection from user error. With the safety plug left out, only the Swagelok valve would remain waterproof to depths of 100+ feet. Even after an hour at 150 feet, an unplugged Swagelok allows only a few drops of water into the housing. Cheaper valves will fail at very shallow depths if accidentally left unplugged and are more vulnerable to impact damage on a pounding skiff ride to the dive site.

Only Airlock offers a double sealed safety plug design
Most “do it yourself” systems using Swagelok valves modify existing Swagelok parts as a safety plug. These DIY safety plugs actually decrease the waterproofness of the valve by disengaging the spring loaded seal. Only the Airlock safety plug offers double the protection with both an active o-ring and spring valve in use at all times.

The Airlock is future-proof and moves from camera to camera
Think you might change camera or housing manufacturer in a few years? No problem. One AirLock system is compatible with all underwater housing brands. If you change housing brands in the future, you will only need to buy a new low cost bulkhead adapter for your new camera housing. The Airlock is designed as a one time investment that will move with you from camera to camera.

Low profile 360 degree valve rotation for easy access
Camera housing manufacturers sometimes place bulkheads in hard to reach locations. If you’re in a hurry, you don’t want to be fighting through a maze of strobe arms and accessories to connect to your vacuum valve. We designed the Airlock to rotate 360 degrees even when under vacuum for quick and easy access on any camera housing. Our right angle design also keeps the valve the lowest profile possible to minimize impacts and snags with other gear.

Removable design for ease of travel
When our test team tried other systems and homemade hacks, we discovered that most designs were difficult to pack in travel bags and were vulnerable to damage. What was once a sleek housing now had a large wart protrusion. We designed the Airlock with a right angle to make it lower profile and also made it tool-free removable to make packing even the most cumbersome housing a snap. We even include a waterproof cap to keep your housing air tight when the valve is removed.

• AQ: Aquatica Bulkhead
• NA10: Nauticam 10mm Bulkhead for SLR Optical Bulkheads (AirLock Only)
• NA16: Nauticam 16mm Bulkheads
• SS1: Sea & Sea Type #1: 18mm Retaining Ring C Clip.
• SS2: 16mm threaded with Retaining Nut
• SU: Subal & Seacam Bulkhead
• UNI: Universal Bulkhead. The Universal Bulkhead features a 1/2 inch diameter threaded shaft and fits housing thickness from 0.1in (~2.5mm) upto 1.0in(~25.4mm) thick. Typically requires custom 1/2in diameter hole to be drilled into housing.

* This requires customized install on the housing. Please contact us for details.
** Please contact prior to ordering. Please specify bulkhead location.
*** Requires NA-RX100V Housing Only. It will NOT work on the standard Nauticam RX100 housing.

SLR Photo:

Camera	Aquatica	Ikelite*	Nauticam	Sea & Sea	Subal
Nikon
D4	AQ		NA16 or NA10		SU
D3, x, s	AQ			SS2	SU
D800	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
D700	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS2	SU
D600	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
D300s	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
D300	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS2	SU
D200	AQ	UNI			SU
D100	AQ	UNI		SS2	SU
D90	AQ	UNI	NA10
D80	AQ	UNI			SU
D70	AQ	UNI
D60	AQ	UNI			SU
D7100	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
D7000	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS2	SU
Canon
1Dc, 1Dx	AQ		NA16 or NA10		SU
5D MkIII	AQ**	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
5D MkII	AQ	UNI		SS1	SU
5D	AQ	UNI			SU
6D	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
7D	AQ	UNI	NA16 or NA10	SS1	SU
60D	AQ	UNI
50D	AQ	UNI		SS2	SU
40D	AQ	UNI		SS2	SU
30D	AQ	UNI			SU
650D		UNI	NA10
600D		UNI	NA10
550D	AQ	UNI	NA10

Compact & Mirrorless Photo:

Camera	Nauticam	Aquatica
Sony
NEX-7	NA16
NEX-6	NA16
NEX-5r
NEX-5n
NEX-5
RX-100	NA16***
Canon
EOS M	NA16
G15	NA16
Olympus
E-M5	NA16
E-PL5	NA16
E-PL3
E-PL2	NA16

Video:

Camera	Amphibico	Equinox*	Ikelite*	Light & Motion*	Nauticam
Canon
G10/20 XA10		UNI	UNI	AQ
HSFS30		UNI	UNI	AQ
Sony
FS700	AQ		UNI
FS100	AQ		UNI
CX760	AQ	UNI	UNI
CX700	AQ	UNI	UNI
CX550	AQ	UNI	UNI	AQ
XR520	AQ	UNI	UNI	AQ
Red
One		UNI
Epic, Scarlet	AQ	UNI			NA16