8Sinn SIGMA fp Cage – Hands On

Reviews

by Graham SheldonJune 1^st, 2020

8Sinn, an accessories manufacturer based out of Poland, creates a wide variety of products aimed at supporting a majority of the small sized camera market. The SIGMA fp camera, launched in 2019, is billed as the world’s smallest full frame mirrorless camera weighing in at under a pound and I’ve been finding ways to beef up the camera to a true Cine-style rig. Will the 8Sinn SIGMA fp cage both hold up to the constant stress of production? Let’s find out!

Top view of the 8Sinn fp cage mounted on the SIGMA fp camera with 45mm contemporary L lens. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

A good cage can give you the peace of mind that your camera is protected from the occasional bump, adds rigging flexibility, and might even add a little style. The $139.00 8Sinn fp cage checks a bunch of boxes on the style front right out of the box. There’s an undeniable cool factor here and the design is such that it doesn’t overwhelm the minimalist approach to the design of the camera itself. You want added flexibility with mounting, but you also don’t want to turn such a tiny camera into something more cumbersome.

From view of the cage. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

Building the cage takes a minute tops without reading the instructions. The cage mounts to the camera through a bottom 1/4″ 20 and through one of the handy side 1/4″ 20’s on the fp located by the grip. The dual mounting points helps keep the overall rig from loosening through normal use over time. This brings me to one of my favorite parts of the cage — the grip itself. It’s the perfect size for me to operate and it’s made out of some type of non-slip plastic composite that feels sturdy enough to take a real beating over time.

The top of the cage has two points to add camera straps for photography applications and the curved metal around the record and main fp control wheel look and feel great.

Top view. I’m a big fan of the curved metal look around the main SIGMA fp control wheel. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

You’ll find plenty of 1/4″ 20 mounting points on top along with a 3/8-16 thread for adding the optional “top handle pro” or the “top handle scorpio“. The biggest difference between the two handles? The 15mm rod mounting point in the scorpio makes it especially useful for EVF mounting. Both handles retail for $139.00 making them the same cost of the cage itself. While I didn’t get a chance to try the handles for this review I personally think they add value for transport and low to the ground shooting styles, but the cost is obviously a consideration.

I’m missing the addition of a cold shoe mount, but Wooden Camera has an affordable solution HERE that would be easy to add to the top of the 8Sinn cage in a pinch.  Both of the 8Sinn above mentioned optional handles include cold shoe mounts, so something to consider.

Rear view.  Lots of space for adding the LVF-11 LCD Viewfinder.  Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

8Sinn engineers clearly gave some thought to potential conflicts with existing SIGMA first party accessories too — namely the excellent LVF-11 LCD Viewfinder. As you can see in the above image the rear of the camera is mostly exposed leaving room for mounting the viewfinder without hitting the cage. 8Sinn also created a separately available $25.00 support foot for the SIGMA MC-21 EF to L adapter, which will undoubtedly be useful for owners of EF glass. The support adapter will help take the weight of heavy EF cine glass without the need for adding a baseplate with additional 15mm rods.

Another nice touch — the cage doesn’t conflict with the battery door so you can use a D-tap power source like THIS with the fp too.

The cage doesn’t sit quite flush to the top of the camera. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

Oddly, there is a slight gap between the top of the SIGMA fp camera and the top plate of the cage (see above image). I didn’t find this annoying while operating, but I’m a little confused about why this gap exists and the cage doesn’t sit flush to the camera on top. I reached out to 8Sinn asking for clarification about this decision and here was their response:

“If it would be so tight you could have troubles with even putting
it on plus it’s better to have a top plate of the cage a little bit
higher, if the user would like to use bigger lenses which need more
room.” – 8Sinn rep. 

Final Thoughts:

Having had a chance to work with most of the 3rd party SIGMA fp accessories to date I was pleasantly surprised by the 8Sinn fp cage. So far, this is the best 3rd party cage and grip combo for the fp I’ve found. At $139 for the cage alone and an additional $139 for either handle option, you’ll want to do a bit of math before you add a $199 8Sinn baseplate to the rig though. 8Sinn is clearly making a premium product here in terms of cost, but you get what you pay for when it comes to build quality — this cage does the job well and it does it with panache.

The grip is excellent and you can just make out the 1/4 20 screen that affords a second mounting point for the cage to the camera body. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon

Disclosure: The author of this post is a SIGMA Cine Ambassador. cinema5D retained full editorial control of the content of this unpaid article.  

What do you think of the 8Sinn SIGMA fp cage? Have you used 8Sinn products in the past? Let us know in the comments below!