Why You Need a Camera Cage
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A camera cage for your video camera is a great accessory for anyone shooting a lot of video whether pro, semi-pro, or amateur.
When you see the benefits of camera cages, you’ll be able to decide why you need a camera cage for your own camera.
What is a Camera Cage?
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A camera cage is a grip, mount, bracket, and/or housing for your camera that serves multiple purposes including protecting your camera, allowing better hand held use, and providing multiple mounting points for video accessories.
There really aren’t any universal camera cages since there are so many styles and sizes of cameras used for videography, though there are some that can be used or adapted to a variety of cameras.
Protects Cameras
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Shooting video involves a lot of things going on all at once, accidents will happen. Worst case scenario, your camera falls or you drop it, a camera cage can provide an extra layer of protection.
When you drop a camera and lens, the most vulnerable parts of the rig are the camera to lens mount and the top plate accessory shoe. Cameras will not always fall in the most beneficial orientation, but are very likely to fall in such a way as to break the top plate hot shoe or wrench the alignment of the lens mount.
For top mounted accessories, it doesn’t even have to be a fall, but regular handling of the camera while having top heavy accessories attached can result in camera damage including breaking of the accessory shoe.
So the way a camera cage protects your camera is preventing the camera from impacting the lens first and also by removing any top heavy shoe mounted accessories from the camera itself by mounting them to the camera cage instead.
A good example of a camera cage that protects in both ways is the Ikan Stratus STR-GH5 complete cage with frame, rods, top handle, clamps, and base. It fits the MFT format Panasonic GH-5 and GH-4 digital cameras which are a favorite of many videographers wanting high quality video in a compact camera.
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Improves Hand Held Use
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Once you mount a large aperture zoom or prime lens on your smallish camera or start adding multiple accessories to any size DSLR or mirrorless camera, you pretty much change the ergonomics of the camera significantly.
That fantastic camera grip built into the body becomes virtually useless for hand holding the camera with a large zoom lens, video monitor, matte box, and external microphone attached. Camera cages often have multiple ways to ease your hand holding burden, either by having a shape that is better for all that stuff or by allowing handles to be added.
The camera cages designed for high end digital video cameras are very hand holding friendly, as well as the cages intended for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.
The Ikan STR-CINE-C200-RIG is a good example of a camera cage designed for the higher end video cameras, in this case the Canon C200 and C200B cine cameras. These Canon cameras are meant to be used either on a tripod, with a grip mounted, or in a cage, so they are not the best at hand holding.
Using this cage, it is extremely comfortable and stable to shoot while holding the camera yourself. In case you’re wondering, all the camera cages I’ve seen are capable of being tripod mounted, usually with an ArcaSwiss style plate or some other quick release.
Multiple Mounting Points
If you try adding accessories to your DSLR or mirrorless camera, you will soon run out of room for securely mounting multiple large items. An external monitor, wireless lavalier receiver or shotgun mic, a light, and transmitters for wireless video are all competing for the tiny space available on the top hot shoe.
If you mount a multi-bracket up top, you’re now in danger of breaking the shoe with too much weight. The camera cage provides all the extra mounting points you could want plus the points are very secure and don’t stress the camera at all.
A camera cage will also make it easier to attach and use lens accessories, too. Rails for mounting a support for large lenses, a follow focus device, or a matte box are part of the design of many camera cages.
A good cage for the purpose of mounting needed accessories to a smaller camera is the Ikan STR-A7II-KIT with a follow focus device. The Sony A7II is one of the smallest full-frame format cameras available and it has excellent video capability, so using one for creating high quality video is a good idea. Mounting all the needed devices to the camera cage makes it an even better idea.
Other Benefits
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The other benefits of camera cages aren’t as huge, but they still make a good case for using camera cages. What are the other benefits of camera cages?
One extra benefit is that by protecting your camera, you increase the possible resale or trade in value of your fine camera. You cannot ask for premium prices for a camera that’s been damaged, but minor cosmetic blemishes that don’t affect functionality will also lower the maximum price you can get back from your investment.
That’s why camera resellers have rating systems for their cameras with “like new” always being the highest priced of any one model. A “beater” camera may work fine, but you can’t ask for “like new” prices for one when upgrading gear.
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Another benefit of camera cages sounds silly at first, but it’s very real. You just look more like a “real” cinematographer or videographer when you use a camera that looks more professional.
You and I both know that has nothing to do with reality, but to the average person, taking direction from a professional vs taking direction from someone that looks like the Uncle Bob Photographer will have better results.
Camera Cages for Specific Cameras
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There is no universal camera cage, at least, not one that will actually do the jobs described above. Shop for a good one, a camera cage will make your videography workflow smoother and give you all the benefits you want from using a camera cage.
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