uh had myself a nice little visit paid by our good old friend mr omicron
the cheers must go on in better news how about uh
how about we talk about this
i gotta say this has without a doubt been the most requested rig breakdown i've ever got i
did my favorite gear from 2021 and showed a couple little glimpses of this a7s iii rigged out and uh
yeah turns out you guys really wanted to see it so what we're going to do in this video is
build this thing completely up from scratch talk through all of the parts that i chose
the reasons why i chose them the variations of different parts that i'll use for certain types
of shoots before we jump into building this thing from the ground up i want to tell you guys a
little bit about my history with this camera and kind of sony's in general i've been a long time
fan and supporter of everything that sony has put out i think they've honestly been one of the best
in the game when it comes to value and versatility with their cameras that they've released over the
last five years or so as you guys know i've had quite a few of their bodies at this point i've
shot all kinds of work all over the world with these things and i've always been very
very impressed with what i've been able to create with them but this camera the sony a7s3 truly is i
think my favorite video camera i've ever used this thing just doesn't disappoint in any regard and so
of course i have a super rigged out setup here that i've been loving using for a lot of different
stuff so let's break it down okay so first things first anytime i'm building camera rigs i really
love using this little tool from small rig has everything you need the cage is something that
a lot of people are asking questions about this is the condor blue sony a7s iii cage
just an amazingly functional well-built cage has a built-in arca-swiss quick release plate
so it makes it really quick and easy to mount your camera in the cage you don't have to
unscrew something from the bottom of the cage but there are these small little locking hex
screws that go into the neck strap eyelets it creates a really secure fit and mount on the
whole cage itself allen key magnet to the bottom really nice let's go ahead and throw on an arca
swiss quick release plate on the bottom of the cage i'll show you why here in just a little bit
let's go ahead and talk about this base plate this is from nicey rig and why i chose this i use a
couple of different cinema cameras and so i wanted a base plate that would really function well with
all of the cameras and add some weight and mass to everything this also has two airy rosettes on both
sides which makes mounting different accessories like side handles really nice we're gonna go ahead
and throw on a small rig arca swiss dovetail plate that's why we put the quick release plate on the
bottom of the cage this is going to make mounting the camera and you know setting it up breaking it
down much quicker and more efficient when we're traveling with the gear or we need to strip it
down to be a little bit more compact go ahead and grab some 15 millimeter rails these are i believe
12 inch rails i have a few different sizes but for this particular setup we're building 12 inch
is just about the right length camera just clamps in super quick and easy for the top handle this
is also from condor blue this is a really really clean top handle mounts via nato rail on the top
it has a start and stop record button that can be plugged into the usb port of the a7 s3 i don't use
it all that often but definitely a cool feature we're gonna throw on another big arca swiss quick
release plate to the bottom of the base plate one thing i forgot to mention is this peak designs
side hand strap what i did to make this work with this cage setup is by adding a small tripod screw
which is a quarter 20 thread that has one of those little wing loops that you can kind of twist and
tighten with your fingers this makes it so i can thread the peak design strap through it mounting
it to the top of the cage and to mount it on the bottom of the cage the little loop i decided to
wrap it around the lever for the quick release on the cage itself what this gives us is a super nice
side grip for shooting handheld with this whole setup it really is surprising how much this adds
stability to the entire thing next we're gonna add a small cold shoe extender this is from small rig
and the reason i do this is because i need to mount a microphone on here with this setup there
really isn't an available cold shoe to mount a microphone um that's not in the way of anything
and so mounting this to the top of the condor blue cage kind of offsets a position that we
can mount a small microphone for on-camera audio the microphone itself the one i've been using
for this setup just because it's so small and so light and honestly i'm really impressed with the
audio quality is the d80 d4 duo this one is cool because it does have two microphones both front
and rear i really only use the front microphone but it's just a really compact great little option
for powering this whole rig we're using a v-mount battery plate from came tv this is a really small
one and i like this one because it has two dtap outputs and it's the perfect size with the kmtv
mini v-mount batteries that i love and rave about amazing compact super functional little batteries
so in order to mount the monitor to the top handle i actually use this little rotating
mount from neeti on it i have a condor blue mini quick release plate these things are amazing and
you guys will see why here in a moment but this bolts straight to the front of the top handle it's
super secure i really like the way this setup works because it doesn't add a ton of unnecessary
height to the rig itself the monitor i'm using is the small hd in d7 and honestly i kind of
wish i talked about this in my favorite gear from 2021 i wish i would have bought a 7-inch monitor
sooner a really high quality one like this with a full aluminum body an amazing user interface
great brightness sdi it's just a solid monitor and really it's worth it in the long run monitor just
pops on and off super seamless super satisfying it makes setting up and breaking down super efficient
love these condor blue plates definitely pick some of these guys up if you don't have any so lately
i've been using these dzo cinema lenses amazing full-frame cinema primes they sent me out a set
of them and i will be doing a review on these very very soon so stay on the lookout for that
of course because these are manual focus lenses we need some sort of a focusing system i personally
really like using the tilta nucleus nano next we're going to go ahead and add the small rig
lens support i think some people will think these are a little unnecessary and i can agree
but especially when you get some heavier lenses on the front of your rig you'd be surprised how
much everything will kind of lean forward it keeps the rig a whole lot more solid because we're using
the nucleus nano we can use the side focusing handle from tilta i have the airy rosette adapter
on this and so i can just go ahead and mount this straight to the side of the rig and give ourselves
a really really nice side support handle and also of course being able to control manual focus this
makes for a really really awesome handheld shooting setup the handle can be articulated
too if you need to get a little bit of a lower or higher angle that's more comfortable for your
wrist i route the cable underneath and kind of against the rails of course using these little
velcro ties that i've showed you guys before to kind of clean and tidy everything up make sure
there's no loose cables around let's go ahead and connect the hdmi and power to the camera
i like using this right angle hdmi cable that i found from caleb pike dslr video shooter as
many of you guys know him this is a really awesome cable it's just the right length and it's uh super
low profile right angle so it's perfectly out of the way we'll go ahead and connect the power cable
to the small hd this is basically just a dc to dtap cable locks into the monitor and then i can
route the cable kind of around the cage kind of hide the wires and plug it into the d-tap
out on the battery plate next i'll go ahead and add a usbc to usb type a and i recently just found
this amazing little right angle usbc adapter it routes that usbc cable straight down completely
out of the way it makes rotating the screen in this setup a lot easier you don't have to avoid
a cable sticking out of the side of the camera this basically just keeps the camera powered the
usb out of the little came tv battery is enough to basically keep this thing alive and not drain any
battery while shooting it's honestly a perfect setup don't have to do a dummy battery we'll
just go ahead and pop in the npf battery for the side focusing handle and boom here we go follow
focus ready to go i love this side focusing handle system for pulling focus when using manual lenses
real quick before we continue with this build i want to tell you guys a little bit about the
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go ahead and add the small rig mini map box i get it i think a lot of people are like you
don't need a map box especially with a mirrorless camera but they really do serve a purpose and also
i get the argument of like if you're not using rectangular filters then why would you use a matte
box well this one happens to work really well with circular filters my freewell magnetic system works
flawlessly and uh honestly it's just convenient cuts out flares it's lightweight of course makes
the camera look a little bit bigger a little more professional which is a good thing there's no
shame in that so this is like my full rigged out production setup with manual lenses but of course
the sony has amazing autofocus and so let's go ahead and show you what my autofocus setup looks
like it's a little stripped down still rocking the tamron 28 to 75 such an amazing lens because
we're not using the side focusing handle from tilta i can swap this out for something a little
bit more functional i like using this side rubber handle that mounts via nato rail and i can mount
it straight to the top of the condor blue cage but then what i do is i put a low profile nato rail on
top of the handle so i can then mount a top handle to it i know that sounds confusing a whole lot of
nato rail stuff going on here but basically they all kind of mount on to each other and it creates
this super awesome kind of lightweight rubber side grip setup it's it's i don't know i love these
rubber grips it makes for a really really secure feel when running around with camera this is the
setup i love using for event work then what's really cool is because we have that arca swiss
dovetail plate to mount the camera to the base plate is i can just really quickly detach a few
cables strip this down and have a super compact but still very functional little handheld rig
this is much more low profile so if i need to get in tight in weird spaces or i just don't want to
have a rig that draws a ton of attention this is the setup okay so that's basically it these are
all of the variations more or less of this a7s iii rig that i've been using and i've kind of built up
over time for different shooting scenarios how i'm able to go really sort of lightweight and
minimal but when i want to add some weight to the whole package make it more stable make it
more functional for real handheld shooting really trying to get the smoother shots you know i can
stick on all of the heavier pieces you know put on the base plate with battery power throw on the
monitor throw on some cinema lenses and really kind of take this whole thing to the next level
of course everything that i talked about here will be linked down below for you guys to check out if
any of it seems interesting to you if you want to pick up any of the parts to add to your rig
hopefully this kind of gives you guys some ideas kind of maybe inspires you on how you can improve
or build your own hope you guys enjoyed this one be sure to give it a thumbs up if you want to see
more camera rig breakdown videos subscribe if you haven't already and i'll see you in the next video
you