18Apr Varavon Panasonic Gh4 machined Camera cage
Varavon had some very interesting prototypes at their booth this year at NAB. They had one of the sexest looking Panasonic GH3/GH4 cages I came across on the floor. Machined from a single block of aluminum, the reps said this was actually one of the first prototypes from the factory floor. The final version will be anodized black.
The Varavon Panasonic camera cage has a nice lip at the front of the unit to prevent any kind of camera twisting and built in cold shoe adapter at the top of the unit. It’s less of a protective cage and more of a all in one mounting solution.
There are cut outs around pretty much every control you’d need to reach on the camera with plenty of 1/4 20 mounting points. They’ve also included a nice leather hand strap for hand held use. It’s hard to get an idea of the actual size of the cage from these photos, but the camera cage is slightly smaller than a Canon 6d body.
Varavon also included a locking mic port as well as a cut out for the LCD screen that allows for full rotation. The reps said there would also be an optional HDMI locking port available upon release. Estimated street price is $200 for the cage and leather handle, but they weren’t sure if the HDMI lock would be included in that price or if it would be sold separately.
There are cages like the PNC Honu Panasonic cage for around $99 but the bolted side and top plates tend to make them flimsy. I haven’t seen a whole lot of other options in this price range that look as well polished. This will be on my buy list once it’s released, should be a perfect fit for the Panasonic GH4.
April 18th, 2014 at 9:18 pm
i would like it to stay the polished aluminum. it has so much BLING to it.
April 19th, 2014 at 12:03 am
I use the PNC Honu cage with the GH3 and it’s not flimsy at all. It’s rock solid and I often have a monitor, Juiced Link, and a mic/receiver or two all on the shoe mounts at once. It’s really well made. I pretty much never take it off the camera and would recommend it to anyone. The biggest advantage the Honu has over the Varavon for me is easily all the mounting options on top/corners: 3 shoe mounts and a bunch of screw holes.
The only negatives of the Honu is that you have some but not full rotation of the LCD, which the Varavon cage addressed with the rounded cutout, and certain fatter HDMI connectors don’t have enough clearance past the vertical side portion of the cage so can’t be connected. I’m not sure yet how the change from the GH3 to the GH4 of mini HDMI to micro HDMI will affect that. The rotation of the LCD can def be limiting but most of the time, I use an external monitor so it’s not a big deal to me. Despite these small drawbacks, I don’t think I could rig up my GH3 with the things I need in a more efficient way with the same small footprint.
April 19th, 2014 at 9:25 am
A friend of mine has the PNC his was pretty wobbly, put a dp6 and a torch LED and it would lean to the side, maybe they’ve fixed that problem in newer models. His PNC also seemed to be much larger like was designed to fit multiple camera brands, while the Varavon was very form fitting and gave open access to all of the controls. Once I get my hands on the Varavon maybe I’ll grab his and do a side by side comparison.
April 19th, 2014 at 3:05 pm
Hmmm. Mine is my is def not wobbly at all and I rig it up with some weight so not sure if he got a defective unit. I got mine right when they came out. Maybe he has one of the other PNC cages? They make a couple other larger ones that are intended for 5D-sized DSLRs. The Honu is def made specifically for the GH3 so it fits like a glove and is super solid…
April 23rd, 2014 at 3:12 pm
Yeah, I think you’re definitely thinking of a different cage than the one you linked to in the post. The Honu is built specifically for the GH3– it will not accommodate larger cameras. While it isn’t a single piece of metal, the Honu is absolutely rigid.
One thing to be aware of is that PNC is primarily a distributor, not a manufacturer. For example, the Honu cage is made by Fhugen while other cages they sell are made (or at least rebranded) by Kamerar, etc.
As a result, one manufacturer’s product may be vastly different than another’s despite the fact that both are sold by the same vendor (PNC).
December 29th, 2014 at 9:17 pm
[…] the Varavon Armor GH4 Cage with the Panasonic GH4 for the last 5 months. When I first saw it at NAB last year I thought it looked like an interesting design and a pretty decent little unit for both mounting […]