I like the SmallRig cage for shooting inconspicuously, when I don't want to intimidate subjects with a big honking cage. For simple shoots I attach a small, cheap ball head under the cage as a handle (with a wrist strap through a 1/4 x 20 hole). For longer shots I put it on a monopod. Just generally really nicely made cage - nice that they made an inset for the iPhone silencer button on this year's cage - with the older model you had to turn it on and off with a ballpoint.
One observation, I’m finding Cinematic mode responds very well to having an ND. If someone is using the Moondog filter mount and Cinematic mode, they’re better off with the Smallrig since all the lenses and Lidar are open with the lens mount in place. I love the Smallrig and given it’s price and advantages, there is really a good case for having both. I have the Polar Pro system with their ND filter permanently in my pocket for every day carry. The case is very easy to remove and it’s quick to swap the phone into the Smallrig for tripod shots.
I’m waiting for the Beastcage for my 15 Pro Max. It’s interesting that neither of these is perfect. Both are lacking something that the other has. Since I have machine tools, I’m planning on modifying the Beastcage. There’s enough metal to do that. I would love a magnesium Beastcage. That would easily cut the weight in half and magnesium is strong and rigid.
One big difference (imo) in the cages is found at the bottom of the cage. Beastcage allows for flush mounted devices such as the Shure MV88 Portable for iOS. The Small Rig doesn’t, it’s raised.
The only thing stopping me from getting the smallrig over the beastcage is the lens option. I got the regular 13 & atm the 17mm option is only for the pro & pro max. If they can add it to the 13 & maybe 13 mini, it would be a solid buy for sure. And it would be really nice if later in the future they also add a 37mm mount lmao. Also rip the Beastgrip M series Mount 😔
Didn’t know that about the regular 13, thanks for the info. And yeah I thought about that too - no more M series lenses. It kind of makes sense though as there’s already several widely used standard mounts and another one just complicates things.
I have the small rig cage and the Zyhun smooth 5.. The combination with a Moment gold anamorphic works great together even though it is beyond the stated weight limit.
One thing I would’ve liked to see covered is whether the Beastgrip cage can accommodate a MagSafe charging plate or battery. I film with my SmallRig and the port is used by a mic - so being able to slap on an Anker, or cable-in a magsafe charger for all day shoots is essential. Hope to get a reply!
I have a small Anker MagSafe battery and while it works fine on the Smallrig it does not work on the Beastcage. The lens mount covers too wide of an area over the connection it seems.
I have the beast cage for the IPhone 11 Pro Max. I have the small rig for the 13 pro. I’ll take the smallrig over the beast cage every time. By the way the beast cage has front mounted side handles
Yeah those arms used to mount the side handles aren’t a favorite of mine, but you can get quasi-side handle setup. I really like the third-party handles from SmallRig or Wooden Camera etc.
I know I’m late to the party but beast grip does offer side grips for the cage. It’s a 2 piece setup. You screw the mounting arm to the back and then the grip mounts to that NATO style.
Assume you’re talking about these? beastgrip.com/products/arm-mount Definitely familiar with them, and they work ok, but they’re kinda clumsy tbh. I wish there was a way to screw mount true side handles.
I think Unless you want to put an DSLR lens on your iPhone the Smallrig is better because it allows you to add grips to the sides of the case. I have the Smallrig case for the 12 pro max. I recorded at the 2021 Monterey race week events and having the side handles on my Smallrig case it is really needed.I bought lenses with the Moment mount. I wanted to use the 60mm lens on the iPhone 2.5x lens to get more zoom. well.... you can't you can only connect to the Wide angle or standard angle lens. so you don't get any more zoom than just using the iPhone 2.5x lens Bummer. I wanted to know is if you can use a lens on the 2.5x iPhone lens to get longer zoom on the Bestgip case? that was not explained in the video.
You can use telephoto on telephoto on both cases. I’m not sure what you’re referring to on the SmallRig. It has a spot for the standard wide or the telephoto, - you cannot add it to the Ultra Wide. So you might look at that again. But to answer your question, yes you can do that on the Beastcage. But you can also do that on the SmallRig (at least you can on the 13 series… I don’t have the 12 series cage).
I’m went with the Smallrig cage. I wanted to use moment lenses for my upcoming trip. Actually purchased Polar Pro’s Litechaser kit for my 13 pro max. HOWEVER Polar Pro’s lenses have been pushed back for a considerable amount of time. (They sent me a prototype and refunded my money though) so I still wanna use my litechaser kit for more everyday carry but I wanted to use a lens on my phone so I ended up buying a Used 18mm moment lenses but I didn’t wanna buy Moment’s thin case cause I figured if I’m gonna spend $50 on a case I might as well get something that’s more robust that I can add extra accessories on to it. so the Smallrig cage is perfect cause it’s light and robust.
Yeah I’ve been waiting on those PolarPro lenses as well. I do really like their kit especially for very easy travel and every day carry. But the Smallrig is a great option as well. Thanks for watching!
I got the smallrig case so I could shoot more stuff with it because I could fit it in my bag and bring it with me. next purchase: moondog filter mount 😈
Do you know if the most recent Moondog labs filter adapter V3 works with the iPhone 14pro? Or have you heard if an iPhone 14pro/max compatible version is in the works? If not, do you know of any other filter adapter mount on the market (compatible with iPhone14pro) that uses the Moment bayonet mounting system? MoondogLabs website hasn't been updated with compatibility options with iPhone 14pro. Thank you for your cage comparison. I am invested in the Moment lenses and case but I'm not pleased with their filter-to-iPhone mounting system for the iPhone 14pro which is a flimsy "snap-on" plastic adapter that is tedious/awkward to mount and not as secure. I was looking at the Beastcage option but the increased weight is the biggest issue for me. Since my present setup only includes Moment's 58mm lens and collection of quality filters, I'm leaning toward the much lighter SmallRig IF I had a fast/secure filter-to-cage mounting option.
I plan grab Smallrig cage (with M mount come with it at standard) and take the M mount to 37mm Smallrig plate to put Beast grip 1.7 tele ont It, bcz I prefer the handle system by Smallgrip and Pricing too think this combo is possible ?
Hello! Thank you for the video! I have a question been following you since the first moondog anamorphic i actually have it, the one with the thread. I want to mount it on my iPhone 14 pro max i was thinking the small rig with the thread? Adapter, will it work?
No, that lens is 37mm so you would need to use a BeastCage or Beastgrip Pro or similar. And BTW, that’s still a great lens and works perfectly with the later sensors. Thanks for watching all these years!
@@iphoneographers yeah but i mean the rear thread the rear thread is 12.5 mm, the mounting part not the front, you know? Everything is bayonet now, so I don’t know how to mount it to my iphone, and yes! Is great!
I’m talking about the rear thread. The one I have is 37mm. They did create a 12.5mm for a little while, but they discontinued it if memory serves. Not sure which gear offers 12.5mm now. I know some Rhinoshield ones used to.
Haven’t used that mic, but some cages do work better than others with accessories like that. It would really depend on which one, but just make sure there’s a wide enough opening to allow for accessories beyond the standard Lightning cable.
My experience is that I purchased the Smallrig cage and the Smallrig 1.55 anamorphic lens, then found out they were not compatible! The magnetic backplane goes round too far and the cage seems to be designed for certain Sirui and Moment lenses. A different backplane could have easily been made available. I also have 17mm threaded lenses and there is no accessory plate for my iPhone 12 Pro Max, though they are available for 13 and 14 pro maxes.
seems like these cages lock you into their own things like lenses etc. For example I have the lite chaser pro from Polar pro and their ND filters attache to the case so I cant see how you can use this with these cages
Yeah you can’t. I really wish the PolarPro filters were threaded so you could use them elsewhere because they are good. These cages actually offer a pretty wide selection of lens choices, but only the one phone model.
What external monitor did you use for the setup on your video? And would the Smallrig allow for such an add-on? I like that option for when I have the camera set up but would be on the other side of the camera.
Yes, you can add a monitor to the cage top by either using the cold shoe or adding your own shoe or a rail. I’ve used this monitor some amzn.to/3Q0OrHz on a similar setup.
You’re referring to the Beastcage? If so, yeah, there is but it connects to the bottom and it’s clunky and proprietary. Wish you could do traditional side handles. But it’s still a great cage.
The inability to put handles on the sides and also the inability to have one Andy filter covering all lenses plus the three times the price has me the small rig the winner!
does anyone know of a cage that supports iphone 15? NOT the pro or the max, to be specific. I'd like find a cage or case that supports the standard Iphone 15 so I can use supported lenses and mount it to a gimbal. Anything helps!
Your best option is probably this from Beastgrip and it’s universal too amzn.to/3G6idq1 And SmallRig usually makes cages for non-pro series phones too. This is for Pro, but look for standard potentially coming… amzn.to/3umtgsD
I was able to mount the anamorphic just fine. People do have to pay attention to the instructions for orienting the anamorphic lens using the set screw
No issues. Some anamorphic though like the Moondog you can spin independently once mounted, so you just have to make sure it’s lined up whichever way you’re shooting.
Why are there so many phone filmmaking rigs designed for shooting landscape and so few for shooting in portrait (vertical)? The mediums are nearly all vertical when it comes to where most phone video content ultimately lives. People filming 16x9 and publishing it are by far the minority of the people capturing video with their phone. The phones are as awkward to handle vertically as the are horizontally yet every new "filmmaking" product that comes out for phones caters only to small group of people who publish phone videos to RU-vid.
Most of these are very usable shooting vertical video, too. But I think the point is, especially in the more expensive ones, those are designed for people using their phone in more traditional ways for RU-vid, corporate video, indie film, etc. Social media like TikTok or IG are typically people that are doing quick videos and often just hand holding the phone.
How do you mount 37mm lenses on the smallrig cage? I have a beastcage Iphone 11 ecosystem of 37mm lenses and filters, and would like to migrate to smallrig for the Iphone 13 pro, assuming I could use existing lenses. Thanks!
You can’t, not natively anyway. One thing you could try though is buy the 17mm mount version of the cage and then get an adapter to 37mm, like this amzn.to/3Lm1zmO. Note I have NOT tried this though and so have no idea if it will work, but it’s something I’ve considered trying as an experiment for this exact scenario. My fear is you could see some vignetting.
@@iphoneographers I''ve also thought about getting a Smallrig setup with a 17 to 37mm adapter but it'd be interesting to know how that works before committing.
It’s 100% correct. I’ve used Beastcages since the iPhone 8. You can get their custom “arms” that attach to the bottom front and then rig handles to those - but that’s not a side mount handle, it’s kinda clumsy too - and it’s a definite drawback to this otherwise excellent cage.
