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I don't know that much about Sony cameras and housings. But I would think any of the strobes designed to work with digital cameras would work. You'll probably have to use a fiber optic connection and use the strobe as a slave off your cameras internal flash.
Sea & Sea, Inon and Ikelite are the top 3 at the moment.
With all the choices out there, even from one company like Sony, you made a fortunate decision, because Sony makes an inexpensive "Marine Pack" for the P-8/10 ( but not for many other lines). You can order it from Sony's website, B&H, or dozens of other places. Sony also makes some underwater lights which they market to use along with the housing/camera. These are basically like video lights, not strobes, and can help with focusing in a dark environment, or adding some color, but it's worth the extra hundreds for a real strobe.
I'm familiar with Sea and Sea strobes, but others probably work just as well.
Yes, you'll need a fiberoptic sync cord as well.
Good luck.
I have used the F505 with great results in an Amphbico Housing on several dives in Cozumel. I sold it and bought a P10 for myself and my wife has a P7, both in appropriate sony underwater housings with 20 watt Sony video lights and video light mountings. Most pictures are blurry, unless it it close up with ample light, or shallow enough so that ambient lighting is available. With a 5 Megapixel camera, we should have no problem, but I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this type of issue with Sony's underwater equipment. Please give me some suggestions if you have any. I can do quite a bit with software to improve the quality of the pictures, but would rather have the pictures that I take with these units be great from the get go!
As a digital newbie with one brief trip with his new P10, I'm not sure I can give you the right answers, but here are some thoughts/comments. Unless it's defective, I doubt the camera is the source of the problems. Not that all of my shots were in focus, but most of the time this was a problem attempting macros--I'm used to a framer, which tells me exactly what the focal distance is. I assume operator error. At a couple of feet, focus tended to be quite good. I know I need more experience with macros, and figuring out just how close I can get with this camera. I should be playing around with it on the surface to get more familiar with it. When I install and learn how to use a decent photoeditor, I'll try to summon the bravery to show some pix--good, sharp ones can be taken. I don't know if windows xp will let me scale down the pixels.
Second, I'd be willing to bet that you'd do much better with a strobe than video lights. Should greatly reduce any effects of motion.
Third, it's not a 505--no ability to set aperture/shutter priority or full manual (I'm guessing you could do that with the bigger, fancier camera), so you may be getting less depth of field than you're used to--again a strobe would help. More pixels don't help much if the pic is out of focus. You can review the blurred pics to see what the f stop and exposures were, and see if that's part of the problem.
Good luck, and keep trying.
Vendors who sell the strobe would also like to sell you a strobe arm to attach to the strobe on one end, and a stay on the other. As I recall without looking at it (I'm at work), the marine pack has a standard screwhole for attachment to a stay (or tripod or whatever). Sea and sea sells the whole setup, with sync cord, as a package, saving you a few bucks. Don't know about the others.
I bought the S&S "Auto" 90, successor to the DX-90, based on my experience with film--that their YS-60 wasn't a strong enough strobe. But you may want to consider saving some money by buying the DX-25. I have to dial the 90 down to its minimum setting or close-ups get too washed out.
Coincidentally I asked the local Sea&Sea suppliers today about what they recommend for the Sony digitals ( I have the P8) and the guy there recommended the YS-25 Auto for macro or YS-90 Auto for more wide angle stuff.
He also suggested that adding an extra piece (4 knuckles) to the macro stobe's arm would give it a greater dispersion for wider shots but I'm not sure if that works
Both use a fibre optic cable to connect the strobe to slave off of the built in flash, and both connect to the camera with a Sea&Sea base plate and arm.
Price wise the YS-90 is the slightly pricier option
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