Description
- [PROTECTIVE ARMOR] for Sony a7/a9 Minimizes Wear and Supports Accessories
- [MOUNTING POINTS] include Cold Shoe, 1/4"-20 and 3/8"-16 Threads
- [QUICK RELEASE TOP HANDLE] Provides More Flexibility When Operating and Handling
- [SIDE FOCUS HANDLE] Controls Nano Motor, Run Stop and Powers Accessories
- [15MM ROD SUPPORT] via LWS Baseplate for Mounting Rod Based Accessories
This camera cage provides complete protective armor for the Sony a7, a7 II, a7 III, a7S, a7S II, a7R, a7R II, a7R III, and a9 cameras.
It provides several 1/4”-20 and 3/8”-16 mounting points as well as two cold shoe mounting points.
The base of the cage also provides several mounting holes when attaching your camera to gimbals to more easily fine tune the balance of your setup.
A variety of different baseplates can be attached to the bottom of the cage, allowing for various rod mounting and optional power supply configurations.
The quick release top handle and various optional side handles can be attached to the cage to provide for different ways to comfortably operate your camera setup.
This kit of the Sony a7/a9 cage will help to fully build out your setup. It includes: the base Sony a7/a9 cage, quick release top handle, Tilta Hand Strap, Arca and Manfrotto quick release baseplates, two different bottom plates depending on the camera you are mounting into the cage, a 15mm LWS baseplate for mounting accessories (as well as 15mm rods for the plate), an HDMI to Micro HDMI adapter, a Nucleus Nano run/stop cable for the Sony a7/a9, various clamps to attach the HDMI adapter and R/S cables comfortably to the cage, and finally the Tiltaing Side Power Handle Type III (F570 Battery).
** Note that this version of the Full Camera Cage for Sony a7/a9 Series is no longer being manufactured and that a new version is coming soon that will be compatible with the Sony a7R IV
This is my second mirrorless camera cage from Tilta. I had previously owned an earlier version of a GH4 cage (ES-T17). This A7 kit is overall very well designed and a great value that comes with ALMOST everything you need and Cheaper than buying it in pieces. I could only find it all in BLACK on the Tilta website. My biggest issue with THIS A7III cage is that, unlike the previous GH4 cage of similar design, the cage does not have a native arca swiss plate either direct to the camera OR on the bottom of cage itself. From the illustrations it looks like it does- but it’s much wider than an Arca Swiss. This would have been a really great feature and would have made moving the rig from the Tilta 15mm rod sled to my Ronin S very quick and easy. This was basically the main reason I bought this kit, despite it’s many other uses. Tilta does include a Manfrotto and Arca plate in the kit , but that requires removing the stock plate that mates with the rod sled and reattaching the Arca plate, which wastes a lot of time and would have to be undone when you wanted to go back to the rod sled. My other issue also included the first cage- one of the great, but sadly undocumented features of these kits is the that on the bottom of the 15mm rod sled is a channel for an Arri Style dovetail plate, in addition to standard 1/4-20 tripod screw holes. Using one of Tilta’s Dovetail plates or Arri Dovetails allows you to easily move the camera forward or backward to distribute the weight of larger or smaller lenses while keeping the center of gravity balanced. This also facilitates quick mounting on Tilta’s handheld shoulder mounts. This feature is awesome and only usually found on much larger Arri / Red Professional rigs. Sadly, little or nothing is mentioned on the product pages about this feature, nor is the lightweight dovetail plate listed as an accessory for this kit. Tilta is missing a great opportunity to sell dovetail plates because, like me I imagine most customers have no idea about this feature. Even one additional picture of the sled on the dovetail plate would help illustrate this idea. Ideally the deluxe kit should be priced a wee bit more and include the lightweight dovetail plate. These setbacks aside, it’s still a great support pkg for the A7 series cameras it fits. Since I already owned a Tilta Nucleus Nano wireless follow focus kit- the focus and power handle connects and powers the mini focus motor easily. Add some of Tilta’s slip-on focus gear belts and you have a very powerful small format camera pkg. The handle even outputs 12v of power to camera (though a voltage step down adapter / dummy battery) or to other accessories like a light or wireless video TX. I wish the two cables need to connect the motor to the handle where shorter, coiled or somehow better integrated into the structure. Cable management requires 2 cable rod clips or some creative rigging. OVERALL I RECOMMEND. I just hope Tilta applies some of these criticisms to the next generation of small camera cages. I would also love to be a consultant or beta tester because I really love most of Tilta’s products and find myself demonstrating and recommending them to my colleagues. (they should allow reviewers to upload photos).