"If I want to shoot great video in the future with my 4K, video enabled DSLR, what should I buy first?" This is a question a get a lot of the time from photographer friends. Given they already own a tripod, my first answer is always to start with a cage. Here is why.
What Is a Cage?
A cage is an open metal casing for your camera with multiple female screw threads for attaching a plethora of accessories. This effectively is the first step in creating a modular video rig setup depending on the demands for a specific shoot. Cages are often specific to camera bodies, so make sure your camera body is in the manufacturers’ compatibility list.
Multiple Accessories
The obvious use is the ability to fix various accessories to your camera body such as monitors, lights, and microphones. Using the hotshoe for a shotgun mic may be sufficient, but there will be imbalance issues if you try to mount a monitor or a light on there, not to mention the increased chances of a monitor or light falling out of the hotshoe mount and breaking.
Improved Handling
Attaching handles above or on either side of your camera body provides smooth camera operation. A cage gives you all the necessary connection points for these accessories, and you can select which ones are going to be most useful depending on your shoot. If you will be shooting mostly from a hip height, then an underarm grip will be the one to go for, whereas side on grips will be better for shooting from the eyeline.
Follow Focus
Shooting creative video will mean you need to take control of focus manually. Moving the focus ring whilst recording will create camera shake, so to minimize this you can attach a follow focus to the bottom of the cage using a rail attachment. Whilst video lenses will have gear rings with teeth, it is straight forward to add teeth to a photography lens using a small accessory.
Matte Box and Filters
You might also consider adding a Matte box to your rails. A matte box usually has movable metal flaps, or French flags, that allow you to block sunlight and artificial light sources that can cause problematic glare and lens flare. Try to purchase a matte box that includes filter sliders to easily add filters. This is especially useful when you are looking to shoot wide open on a bright sunny day. You’ll want to keep your shutter speed at 1/50 s for shooting 24fps footage, so ND filters restrict the light entry onto the sensor without having to dial down the aperture.
Protection
The benefit of a cage is the added protection for your camera a metal shell will provide. Super useful if you have a reputation a dropper of things.
Cages are an inexpensive necessity for DSLR filmmaking. They are a great starting point to any camera rig, and provide a modular framework around your camera to great really great looking footage. It's rare you will need to use every accessory out there at the same time, but a cage gives you plenty of options and configuration depending on the demands of your video shoot.
Learned the hard way. The hot shoe is a useless piece of junk in video. I had a SmallHD monitor on the hot shoe and it slipped off. Damaged the HDMI connector on the camera. Now I always use a cage when I film especially to securely mount any accessories.
Agreed, even the less expensive cages allow you keep all the external components exactly where you want them.
everything about lighting i think
Same experience as above. If you can't pull focus without holding the camera steady you need to practice. Learn to do without so you not dependent on extra expensive kit. If you are just starting out buy a variable ND first, this is the most important piece of kit to keep your shutter and fstop low. Follow focus and matte box are waste of money for first timers.
Very nice article.
What's inexpensive? I don't see one for under 700 for a nikon.
Thanks for the article - I am all about ‘the rig’ for my work flow .... I agree with some others here that a FF is not a nessesity ... with practice an op can rotate the barrel without moving the camera - but I know exactly what you are talking about with the shake - and I much prefer an FF.
I’ve been building my own rigs for eight years and I also agree that it is such an efficient way to shoot ... whenever I have to shoot without one there is so much functionality that I miss.
A well accessorized cage allows me to work seemlessly and fast and everything stays put - but it’s not always best for people starting out - and the added weight makes handheld intolerable after awhile - then of course you add a shoulder rig - and so on and so on ... unfortunately I’ve spent more on building my cages than I care to think about. ( the cheap stuff never worked well for me )
Also yes to what someone said — a variable ND is invaluable - especially if you shoot without a matte box with drop in filters - but spend some money on a V-ND and get one with hard stops ... if you rotate too far you can pollute potions of the sky depending on the angle of sun in relation to lens direction .
I use the small rig setup even when doing photography. Protection for a clumsy person is grace.