cage for a7ii

[trorvik]

I finally converted from M43 (GH3, GH4) and bought an a7ii one month ago. Since I use this for video 99% of the time the choice was between the a7S and the a7ii. Most people with video needs go for the a7S but since

 

-better video AF

-in body image stabilization (so I could use any lens handheld without shake)

 

was the main reason for switching systems I went for the a7ii. I also wanted a cage with the camera so I could put a small shotgun mic and two wireless Sennheiser recievers on it. After I got the camera I started searching for cages. And to my big surprise I couldnt find a single cage, at least a compact one that didnt cover the hot shoe of the camera, that was made for the a7ii. For the a7S there are however a lot of options. After searching the web for days and reading all I could find in forum there didnt seem to be a single person with any experience in cages for a7ii. So I thought I would share my solution if anyone is in the same situation.

 

I finally found this cage:

 

http://www.amazon.com/DSLR-Handle-Leather-Strap-Camera/dp/B00VLCZOI4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436706461&sr=8-1&keywords=sony+a7ii+cage&pebp=1436706481983&perid=0SAZ26QHXVEHQFDX3PN1

 

This is sold around the web under different names and some of the places it says it will fit the a7ii. I finally got it this week and put it together. It is very lightweight,solid and has quite good build quality for the price. All the pieces fit nicely together. And yes, you can fit the a7ii inside of it. But not without problems. The biggest is that you cant open the battery "door". The other is that you cant open/close the headset "door" when the camera is inside the cage. A solution for this is to open the "door" before you put the camera in the cage. But then it will have to stay open. Which is not really a big problem since I use a headset all the time. The third problem is that there is a ledge on the front of the bottom plate that is supposed to help the camera from turning inside the cage. Because of the different thickness of the a7ii the cameras front dont rest towards this ledge but further back. The camera is however quite stable inside the cage so this is not a big issue for me. Happily the cage does not interfere with the hot shoe mount of the camera so you can use this.

 

My solution was to find a small metal saw and just saw of a piece of the cage to be able to open the battery compartment. The sawing job was quite easy because the metal the cage is made of isnt too hard to saw in. And the sawing does not leave very sharp edges, so dont be afraid of the sawing. If you look at the pictures the piece you have to saw off is the thinnest edge around the battery opening. This was very easy to do. And it doesnt look too bad either. After this I could easily open and close the battery compartment. My biggest concert about this modification was that the whole cage would loose its stability. But the cage seems just as solid after removing this piece. 

I addition i sawed of the little piece of metal sticking down on the left side to be able to open and close the headset "door". This was even easier. 

 

So now I have a fully working cage for the a7ii. It is much lighter and more compact than it looks in the pictures and I was able to fit everything I needed on it without the whole thing becoming to large and unwieldly.  When the a7Rii, that shares the same body size as the a7ii, comes out I am sure there will be more cage options around. But if your desperate to get a cage right now and dont mind a little metal sawing then I can recomend the cage.

 

There is however one more concern. There is a 1/4''-20 hole that you can use to mount the cage itself to a quick release plate. If you mount a quick release plate here it will cover the battery compartment. The workaround here is to find a screw that is a little bit longer so you can mount the quick release plate through the same hole that you use to fasten the camera to the cage. Then the quick release plate wount cover the battery compratment.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

[CKHarvey]

Valuable tips, thanks. I'm considering the A7II for similar reasons. Question: Have you put it's AF to the test? I'm wondering if it would be feasible to run AF mounted to steadicam.

[trorvik]

Sorry. Haven't visited the forum for a while but if you are still interested.....

 

Personally I changed to the a7s because I just could not live with all the moire/aliasing in video on the a7ii in wide detailed shots. The a7s is much much better in this way. But how much is too much is a matter of taste. But be aware of it and check if you can live with it before you buy.  

  

The Sony a7ii does have a somewhat faster AF in video, but the difference in comparison to the a7s is not huge. You will mainly see it when moving towards objects fast. The a7ii does a better job at keeping up than the a7s. But for me the trade in with being able to take wide shots of nature/buildings etc without all the horrible moire/aliasing was worth the loss in AF speed. What I didnt think about was that for use on steadicam the a7s has another big advantage. Its incredible low lights abilities. That means that you can practicly choose what aperture you will like to work with even indoors in dim light. Working on f9 or f11 indoor is not impossible when you have such a high usable iso. And this will help a lot with using AF on a steadicam.

 

You should however be aware that you cant really put your total faith in AF on any camera for steadicam work. MF with turning the lens ring will not work well for you, but I use a hybrid system much of the time. Assign AF/MF toggle to the AF/MF button. When i move around i have the camera in AF mode. But when i settle on a shot, particularly a person/interview i wait for the face detection to find the focus, then I press that button to shift to MF mode to prevent the camera from focus hunting. When i need to move to a shot of the reporter or a shot of something else I press the button again and activate AF. This works seamlessly. I had the GH3/GH4 earlier but on that camera this was a hassle since you can only change focus mode with a switch. Using this required you to hold around the camera body and use some force. This was visible in the shot. A gentle push of the AF/MF button on the a7 is not noticable.

 

However, have in mind that the thing I miss the most from the a7ii is the IBIS for handheld work. When you have worked with this for a while and then dont have it you will really really miss it. If you have a steady hand you can work without a tripod for all shots even of static objects (except really long tele shots). In 75% of the shots no one would be able to tell that you didnt use a tripod. The last 25% you can make tripod like with a little bit of stabilizition in Adobe Premiere.

 

The a7s ii is the camera that will finally give me everything I ever wanted in a camera in one body. Sadly it is just a little bit too expensive for now. But when they drop the price 500$ or it I can get a used one I dont know if I can resist. But would like to see some tests of the AF on it in video mode first to check if it really is better than the other models. Sadly people almost never put tests on vimeo/youtube that will tell you something useful about the AF on cameras. What I want to see is someone moving around a room between shots of different objects and check how fast the camera locks focus, and one of them needs to be a person to check how the face detection works. If the person is able to move a little bit, look to the side etc without the camera loosing focus I am really happy and have made my buying decision.   

[loganhelps]

Hi trorvik which cage are you using for the Sony A7S? do you have a set-up picture? 

[Shane Wilson]

I just read an article on dslrvideoshooter that introduced 7 cages fit for sony a7s. I think Movcam cage and the motion9 are two best choice. Both the two cages are well form-fitted with a7II. Movcam can be configured as a full cage that has the benefit of an extra coldshoe mount which is the perfect place to mount the Sony audio pack. Its removable top handle looks nice. The Motion9 Cube R2S series fits the Sony A7R II and A7S II hybrid mirrorless cameras.

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[brettfrey]

This is the best cage for my purposes. Birdcage by Lockcircle. I just purchased A7s II system (sitting on my desk) and waiting for camera to arrive. Birdcage is a work of art.

 

https://www.lockcircle.com/

 

Here is an early build of my rig.

 

 

[brettfrey]

 

 

 

Birdcage