Abstract: Within this work we present a first experimental setup of a high-resolution real-time-capable 3D sonar camera system for deep sea operation. Since we are currently in the development process, the focus of this work is on the transmission aspects of the camera. Following publications will include the receiving aspects as well as the first phantom reconstructions. The system consists of a 1024 element matrix array antenna, together with a 128 channel beamforming system including a 1:8 multiplexing device for each channel. The camera is supposed to deliver volumetric images within a range of up to 15 m in a deep sea environment up to 6000 m depth. The antenna provides the advantage of an adjustable defocused transmitting sound field. This allows dynamic control of the field of view, and an increase of the image contrast for a specific region.