Search the Community

Hey guys! I've run in to a bit of a problem, I want to make a short film and I will probably need to use my A7ii and I wanted to build out a nice rig for it but just realized that its so outdated that there is no cages for it. So my question is, If I would buy a cage for the A7iii because there is plenty for that, could my A7ii fit in it? I know that the A7ii is smaller because of the np-fw50 battery, so in theory it should fit with a little extra room left in the cage. Also if you guys have any cage suggestion I should look at I would appreciate it:)

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.