The Best Sony A7s Cage of them All? – 6 Cages Reviewed

August 10^th, 201535

The Best Sony A7s Cage of them All? - 6 Cages Reviewed

by Sebastian WöberAugust 10^th, 2015

Motionnine CubeCage for Sony a7S

Motionnine is a Korean company and they are quite new in other parts of the world besides their home country. For their products they often use innovative ideas to make things work and some interesting solutions can be found in their CubeCage for Sony a7S.

best-sony-a7s-cage

HDMI cable protector quality

The cable protector of the CubeCage for Sony a7S has a unique design that allows you to lock all sideport cables very securely to the camera. Unfortunately it takes some minutes to attach and lock the HDMI cable into place and is not very practical overall.

On the other hand each cable can be locked exactly into place (a feature that might be rarely needed). First and foremost the HDMI cable has to be locked and secured.

There is a pro version of this cage that has a different cable protector mechanism that works without allen keys. We didn’t have it for review though.

Access to other outputs on the side

Access to the other outputs is given and all of the cables can be locked separately.

Ease of assembly and disassembly

Assembling and disassembling this cage is easier than some others, but it is still time consuming and requires 2 types of allen keys. The base screw cannot be tightened with a coin, but also requires an allen key.

There is a small plastic part that extends the lens-release-button and is required, but can easily be lost and is not straight forward to attach. Also this is a part that is loose when the camera is not inside the cage.

How securely is the camera attached to the cage?

The camera is locked very tightly inside this cage. There are fittings that make it immovable and the camera is protected on all sides.

Possible to use the Sony XLR-K2M audio module?

Yes, but the handle has to be removed.

Access to the lens release button

It is easily accessible due to the aforementioned plastic extension bracket.

 Baseplate mount quality

There are several 1/4″ threads on the bottom of the camera and the surface is sufficiently large to attach a tripod plate securely.

In order to save space Motionnine developed a retractable base that attaches to the Metabones adapter. This is a nice idea.

Rod support quality

The rod support can be ordered separately and is mounted to the base of the cage with two small screws. Unfortunately mounting and dismounting this accessory is not an easy task as the provided allen key doesn’t fit in the small space underneath the plate.

It takes minutes to disassemble this and when you’re in a hurry and need to get your camera off the riser plate this is a no-go. Furthermore the camera can only be dismounted from the cage if you dismount the riser first as the base screw sits underneath.

Handle design

It is not easy to take the handle off or put it on, but once it is locked to the camera it sits securely.

There is no additional coldshoe or EVF mounting point which is a pity.

Overall Ergonomics

On the CubeCage for Sony a7S there are many mounting points all around, even on the front. This way we could even attach a shouldermount to the thick right hand side of the cage. Thats a nice touch.

Unfortunately there are no 3/8″ threads, no coldshoes and no EVF mount despite its full-cage design. There are some unique touches about the Motionnine cage, like the hole in the grip that frees the A7s’ IR receiver or the small thumb-support rod that works surprisingly well to stabilise the camera. Unfortunately the design ideas don’t make up for the shortcomings mentioned above.

Overall the cage feels good in your hand and it’s not bad in terms of ergonomics, but we wish there were more mounting options.

Due to the full-cage design unfortunately the CinEasy Touch mod (helps trigger the rec button) doesn’t fit on this one.

Conclusion

Overall the Motionnine CubeCage for Sony a7S is a good cage, but with 3 orange lights and two red ones there are also some things that are missing or need improvement.

There are some nice design ideas that could be built upon, but they don’t outweigh the shortcomings. We wish there had been more of the mounting options the other cages provide and a simpler way to protect the HDMI cable.

Price: $360

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