The Best Sony a7S II Cage / a7R II Cage – 8 Cages Reviewed

December 18^th, 201594

The Best Sony a7S II Cage / a7R II Cage - 8 Cages Reviewed

by Sebastian WöberDecember 18^th, 2015

Moza Cage for Mirrorless Cameras

Gudsen is the company behind “Moza”. Their affordable brushless gimbal stabilizer competes with DJI’s offerings. They recently also announced an Osmo Clone called Moza Mini. Their Cage for the Sony a7S II looks very interesting as it offers a side handle to control and power the camera. This cage is a multi-camera cage and will also fit the original a7S, the Panasonic GH4 and the Blackmagic Pocket Camera. Let’s see how that turns out.

Ease of Assembly and Disassembly

While attaching the camera on the Moza Cage, we were a bit hesitant if we’re doing everything right. The design looks simple and you’d think the process is straight forward, but for us it was not. Unlike the other cages there is no clear “right” way to mount it. There are different positions to mount the camera plate itself and the camera position within the cage can be adjusted to all sides as well, which for us defeats the purpose of a “cage” that should snuggly fit a camera. It takes a lot of effort and time to install the camera and at the end it is not sitting securely or locked.

How Securely is the Camera Attached to the Cage?

The camera is not sitting in this cage securely at all. It can easily pivot left and right. The cage offers no protection or stability.

HDMI Cable Protector Design

There is no good HDMI protection on this cage. The solution offered is a cable clamp that can be installed at the side, close to the HDMI and USB ports. Unfortunately this results in bending the cable, while they can still be removed and moved, which can damage the fragile HDMI port on the camera.

Do we Have Access to Other Outputs on the Side?

When an HDMI cable is in use with the cable clamp attached to the side, the camera headphone jack is blocked. Also the USB cable that is required to use included side-handle blocks the mic-in port.

Is it Possible to use the Sony XLR-K2M Audio Module?

Yes, the audio module can be used with this cage, but the top-handle will not fit at the same time.

Can we Easily Access the Lens Release Button?

Yes, nothing is blocking the lens release button.

 How Well Can we Attach a Tripod Plate?

Unfortunately here’s another problem. We can’t attach a third party tripod plate to the camera as there are no 1/4″ threads built into the cage. We give this point an orange (and not red) rating here because the built-in tripod plates are compatible with industry standard Manfrotto / Sachtler tripod mounts.

How Good is the Included Rod Support?

The base of the included rod support is very small, has almost no surface area and offers a single 1/4″ thread, making any tripod plate sit much too loosely. It’s a little hard to operate the baseplate as some of the wingscrews are not easily accessible underneath the cage or in the way of each other.

Otherwise the rod support works as it should and can be set to the correct height. The cage kit also includes two 15mm rods.

Metabones Mount Quality

There is no Metabones support on the cage.

The Top-handle Design

When detaching the top-handle the wingscrew that holds the clamp falls off easily. There is no rod mount for an EVF. There are some attachment points on the top.

Overall Ergonomics

Using this cage feels a bit like Lego, but not like a tool to make your job easier.

Unfortunately we have to give the overall ergonomics of this cage a double red rating as it needs serious improvement. The multi-camera cage design means losing many of the benefits a dedicated cage has to offer.

On the plus side we have the built-in Manfrotto plate and the side-handle that lets you start and stop the camera, but it is badly implemented. (Concerning the side-handle, it has a proprietary mount and cannot be relocated, somehow defeating its purpose as both the location as well as the bulkyness of it will not be making your shooting any easier. Triggering the record function worked very well.)

On the handle there is an autofocus button as well. Maybe with a different camera this makes sense, but with the Sony a7S II and a7R II in autofocus-mode, it doesn’t.

Total weight with top and side handle (including battery): 763g
Cage weight without top-handle: 351g
Cage weight with top-handle: 472g

(weight without rod support)

Conclusion

There are many good ideas here and many parts are included with this cage. But the implementation and overall quality of this cage leaves a lot to be desired. The parts felt cheap and they come covered in a lot of “plastic dust” that immediately went into the camera and onto the sensor. We were not happy with this cage and cannot recommend it at this time. We hope the next version of the cage will see some improvements, especially considering the high price.

Price: $499

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