places to mount various accessories.
My company bought the Fujifilm
X-T3 for a variety of reasons, but one of
the most significant was that we needed
a 4K-capable camera that would be
small and light enough to mount on a
gimbal. We’ve been using the camera
for the past several months, often to
shoot lifestyle footage of our documen-
tary subjects we’ve been shooting for an
upcoming docuseries called "Year On
The Water." The X-T3 has performed
very well, but as we’ve continued to
shoot, we’ve run into several situations,
particularly when operating the camera
in vehicles where mounting the camera
on our gimbal actually becomes a less-
effective way of capturing the footage.
The decision was made that besides
using the X-T3 on our gimbal, we
wanted to expand to shooting a lot
more handheld footage.
While the screen on the X-T3 is
decent for an on-camera monitor, we
found that often when shooting exteri-
ors, the ambient sunlight overpowered
the screen, making shooting, compos-
ing and checking focus difficult. We
knew that we needed to add a monitor.
While we try to wire our subjects
with small recorders and wireless lavs
and use a boom mic to record them,
there are often situations where we
need to pick up audio from our subjects
or others near them so that we can hear
them on-camera. We also like a clean
ambient audio track when shooting
with outboard recorders. So mounting
a mic on the handheld rig was desir-
able. The last design criteria on our
handheld rig was to figure out a better
solution to protect the flimsy and frag-
ile Micro HDMI video output connec-
tor of the X-T3. (More about this later
in the story.)
SmallRig And Other Accessories
We did some research and found one of
the most popular camera-cage systems
on the market is from a Chinese com-
pany called SmallRig. I own quite a bit
of camera support gear from Zacuto,
Shape, Wooden Camera and others,
but I also have several SmallRig acces-
sories, which have always worked quite
well for me. And while they’re not
cheap, they’re significantly less expen-
sive than a number of popular brands
of camera-support gear.
This meant we could spend just a
few hundred dollars without break-
ing the bank. (Keep in mind: Every
item mentioned here—short of body,
brands and models of specific cages—
are modules that will work well with
cameras from other brands.)
The camera cage for these systems is
the first building block. It’s the “base”
that you work upward and outward
from. So it’s an important choice.
There are two SmallRig cages for the
X-T3 (which, by the way, is a mirrorless
camera that lacks robust battery life).
The only difference between the two
cages is size: The larger cage (SmallRig
2229) accommodates the X-T3 body as
well as the VG-XT3 Vertical Battery
Grip (which costs $329). The smaller
cage only holds the X-T3 body. So, we
bought the SmallRig 2229. We also
decided to buy a slightly used VG-XT3
grip for just $200.
The following accessories include the
SmallRig cage and additional accesso-
ries we attached to that cage:- SmallRig 2229 Cage, $99: This
form-fitted cage, which fits the
Fujifilm X-T2 and X-T3 (with battery
grips) and features built-in NATO rails
and a cold-shoe, provides all-around
protection and mounting options for
either camera. The cage is attached to
the camera via the bottom ¼-inch-20
threaded hole and the m2-threaded
hole, as a second point, to prevent wig-
gling. The one-piece aluminum cage
features multiple ¼-inch-20, 3/8-inch-
16 and 3/8-inch holes for accessory
attachment. I was struck by the qual-
ity of the CNC machining on the cage:
The edges were smooth and all of the
tapped holes were nicely finished off
and burr free.- SmallRig 1984 Top Handle Grip,
$39: There are many handles avail-
able for the SmallRig 2229 cage. For
example, you can mount a NATO rail
with a quick-detach handle or a fixed-
mount handle, as I did here. (I felt that
I wouldn’t need to mount and detach
the handle too often, so I went with
the fixed mount.) There are cold-shoe
mounts found on the top and back for
attaching lights, microphones, monitor
mounts and EVF mounts.
There are other handles available,
but I liked that the 1984 handle was
bare metal with serrations for a sure
grip. The coolest feature is that the
handle has an integrated magnetic slot
that contains a built-in channel for an
included Allen wrench, for affixing
or detaching the handle to the cage or
accessories to the handle.
There’s a milled slot that also con-
tains two spare Allen screws that are
Pro medium-level digital cinema cameras,
like the Sony FS7 MKII, feature built-in
variable NDs, XLR connections and time-
code i/o options not typically featured on
mirrorless cameras. digitalphotopro.com November/December 2019 | 61