so today i'm doing a quick 9 minute and 20 second review of this cage for the nikon z6 or z7 camera
what's the purpose of a cage just to put additional stuff on your camera or protect the
camera body and what i'm going to show here is the fit and finish how well it goes on to the z7 or
the z72 these are very small camera bodies and this makes them look much bigger this is model
2824 so if you're looking that up by small rig and as i said it also works for the six i've
sold off my six and now i have the seven and the z seven two close-ups of the machining here the
finish is really good and if you're in doubt if you've got a big clutter box with all your gear
in it this will stay right on it that it's for the nikon z6 or z7 and it's model 2824 which is
by the way their premium model they offer another less expensive cage that also matches up with
the nikon z7 or z6 lots of quarter 20 threaded receptacles here in the pictures when i bought
this i thought that small rig emblem there that's gold looked like a piece of plastic but it's not
it's also a piece of metal so the machining quality is really good and of course here's
a quarter twenty threaded screw on the bottom and there's a little screwdriver already built in for
it we're gonna put this on a camera so i'm gonna show you how it works but another cool thing is
it has these little pads here that hold it secure and see that little post right there
there's a hole in the bottom of your nikon camera body that matches that perfectly so again we're
going to put that together and there's little pads on the front too so the front of your camera
body pushes up against this frame and there's no twisting or turning i've got another previously
discontinued cage also by small rig that we're going to show you in comparison here in a moment
and that little screwdriver is held by magnets there they are two little magnets so you could
leave that on there not the end of the world if you lose it because it looks like this thing
would be easily tightened up with a quarter so if you carry change in your pocket you're good to go
here is the body by itself this is just the z7 not the z72 but physically you really can't tell
the difference between the bodies except for this little emblem down in the corner
that lets you know what you're dealing with
and you have to take your lens off ahead of time if you've got the larger lenses which we do
we use the 24 to 70 and the 70 to 200 f 2.8 lenses that are zooms
you got gotta take them off first then put your body in the cage there's that little
post sticking up make sure to align your body right on top of that because that's unforgiving
it doesn't depress or anything it just fits in the little hole on the bottom of your nikon
and when you start to thread the screws if you're not perfectly aligned
it will pull the camera body into alignment and it goes right down
over the post now if it doesn't watch for that so you don't try to force it
and then you just push screwdriver away
and you can see that it mounted well because it's nice and flush to the bottom there
the grips are easily accessible all the controls are accessible your mic your headset connections
also make sure these little camera strap metal pieces on the sides are not in the way when you
try to tighten everything up you also don't want it bumping up against your dial there on the right
now that has a big bold seven on the bottom of it because that's back when i got the z6 and z7
together you couldn't tell the bodies apart and in dark spaces i needed to see which was which
and of course it has an articulated screen but everything is accessible it doesn't bump or wear
on the camera you've got every button accessible with this cage so here we are with a 70 to 200
millimeter zoom lens on it and i use the handle actually it's the mount on the bottom of the
zoom lens which i flip to the top and use that as your carry handle and you'll find that the camera
is perfectly balanced so that's a 70 to 200 f 2.8 lens really good lens by the way
and on these z bodies it looks great so now we can add things to it so the other thing
is if you make videos holding your camera in a stable way is valuable to you so they also
make a small rig handle and i'm going to put that on the quarter 20 threads on the left
hand side of the camera not the right originally i did put two of these handles on but i couldn't
activate the shutter very well you had to reach across the handle on the right side
in an awkward way so now we just put the extension handles on the left you're going
to find out it wiggles a little bit but what's cool about this handle is they include their
little allen wrench right in the bottom it's held in place by a couple of magnets again
and then we're just going to give them a little tightening twist there
don't overdo it and you'll find that wiggle goes away and you'll see too that there are
screws in the handle so it can handle on the right or the left it can mount and you can
slide it up or down until it's at the height that you want it to be so pretty versatile and
they make a wooden handle but i decided i didn't really want that it was kind of conspicuous and
it would show up in reflections and things like that i like to use black gear as much as possible
so there's the small rig cage with the handle on it and now i suppose for demonstration purposes
we should clutter it up with some stuff so small rig also makes a bunch of cold shoes that you can
add quarter 20 threads there comes with a little silver allen wrench that you tighten that up with
and it's got a little release on the right so you can push your
cold shoe whatever it is that you want to put in there you could put an auxiliary flash there's the
hot shoe on the camera fully accessible too and then another cold shoe on the right they also have
openings for straps if you like to have camera straps and things like that i use cotton carriers
so camera straps aren't for me just for kicks we're going to put this tascam stereo mic on it
because it has an extension boom and that gets the audio pickups out and away from the back of the
camera which used to be really important when you could hear the lens focusing and things like that
not so much a problem with the z-series cameras unless you're using the old f-mount lenses and
you've got the adapter and those f-mount lenses make noise so getting your microphone forward of
the camera forward to that noise is a benefit now let's look at cable management here clips right on
the side there then we'll run the cable right through the openings in the handle that we've
added on the side so that's out of the way and then there's room of course to plug it in so you
can plug your headphones in over here or of course an auxiliary microphone which is what we're doing
here so it's still accessible with the cage in place all your dials everything i like it so far
so the other thing is we do some macro video photography we do still and video work
so we need versatility here is the z72 with the other small rig cage that i couldn't find anymore
so i bought this used and it works pretty good the camera body has the potential to
twist inside the cage a little bit which with the new one it does not
but it still gives you a lot of extra threaded places so you can add equipment that is
a little button for the cotton carrier vest system that i carry my cameras on
so i can carry multiple cameras at once i don't have to run back to my camera bag all the time
and here's the bottom again of the other one and of course you can adjust the height of
your handles so that they'll allow the entire camera to sit flush and keep everything stable
and if you for example use pocket wizards you put your pocket wizard tt5 or whatever on that
it does not interfere at all with the cages either one of these cages as far as that goes
so that's the z7 and the z72
still pretty lightweight easy to manage so now let's take a look at doing macro
video and macro photography some things to think about so here we flipped out a little bit
and uh that's because we have that rear screen that flips so we can look at it and look what's
on top here the new fusion tlc controller so that also has a update for the software for your tt5s
and you can remotely control all of your flashes off camera because when you're
doing macro photography often the subject is very close to your front element of your lens
and you will get a shadow cast from that hood so by getting your camera flashes off camera or
up and away is there on the left or here on the right then we can light our subject without any
concerns about casting shadows from the camera itself i also took that road mic
and put it on the other boom and shifted it to the right side because there's space for it there
that cold shoe on the right is not large enough for your pocket wizard controllers
so you do want to probably get that extra handle on the left there because it can get some
equipment away and of course get your flashes off center thanks for watching i hope this was helpful