If there’s been one product that has caused quite a stir within the film making industry in the last 6 months it’s the launch of the Nikon ZR, their first offering within Z Cinema and the brand partnership with RED. Being a Nikon shooter myself, it was one of those cameras that I just had to add to my kit, especially with the increase of video work I’d start to take on with show reels and Instagram reel content.

The only thing with being early to the party is that at the time of launch, there weren’t that many 3rd party accesiors like cages or rigging for the ZR. There was one offering from Smallrig, and that was the cage that everyone bought, including me. It wasn’t without it’s issues and compromises the main one being that top bar going across the whole button area of the ZR. It worked just but made things slightly more awkward when filming. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the Smallrig cage handle kit, the screwing of the 3/8″ thread each time and if I wanted to go and film vertical content, there weren’t any threads on the cage to hold the handle vertically.

I was always on the lookout for the “ideal” cage and as the months passed, more and more companies started to launch Nikon ZR products. Everyone was trying to get their own version and design of a cage. I even at one point had a pre order for the Kondor Blue cage, their first design looked very promosing however, the one issue was the fact that you lost access to the hot shoe as they were mounting directly into there. However it did at launch have access to the function and power button area but on the next time their released the whole product had changed and now the top bar went right through, running down and along the profile of the camera but still slightly obscuring the function controls.

Tilta was another brand that I had looked at when they dropped a version. Button access but with a wood style handle which wasn’t really my first choice. However, as I’d switched to a nato system with my handles and grips, I’d still need to add extra nato rails along the top and side of the cage. Meaning I had fixed one issue with my Smallrig cage but still needed to rig out more adding the rails. This was until Smallrig dropped their updated version of the Nikon ZR cage the Smallrig HawkLock cage kit for Nikon ZR. Could this be the ideal cage that I was looking for?

Within a few days, I had already placed an order directly with Smallrig as at the time of launch, this was the only way to order the new Nikon ZR Smallrig HawkLock Cage. It was then the wait from China till it actually landed and I was able to finally see if there was the cage I’d been wanting for my camera rig.

Fast forward 6 days and the new cage had finally arrived. Comparing the two cages side by side it was clear that they had taken everything that everyone loved about the first version and then combined that with everything that needed fixing, to create this new HawkLock cage. Much of the bottom of the cage remains unchanged with all the same mounting points and the arca base plate. One small change which was a welcome update, was a tiny latch catch for if you’re using dummy batteries, the ZR door won’t just be swinging open. Perfect for when I’m filming those long show days and YouTube content. Testing with my Kondor Blue EN-EL15 dummy battery, it works better than I thought. I know when I first saw the ZR launc,h I spoke to a Nikon UK rep about the battery door as there’s no cut out like on other Z series cameras (Z8, Z9) so it’s a welcome change to have this!

Even from day one of having the first Smallrig cage the design of having the function buttons obscured and having to press over it to reach the record/zoom rocker, just always annoyed me. Something you kind of got used to but it was always the friction when on shoots espesically when a lot of my work is just handheld with a 24-70mm or a prime lens. Holding the camera now feels a lot more natural as I’m able to reach the function buttons directly with my index finger from the front of the camera. No need to battle over a metal part of the cage anymore; everything just feels so much easier to use.

The biggest selling point for me was finally having built in nato rails, no more needed to add extra bits of rigging acorss the cage. Which I know that’s the whole point of building a camera cage is the “build” but it was one of those things, why isn’t there just a standard nato rail on the cage? So it was very appreciated when the whole idea of the HawkLock system is the quick release styling. The fact as well that this HawkLock cage comes with a 1/4″ spacer for the 3/8″ thread is very welcome, as I had to search for the thinnest version I could find to mount it into the 3/8″ thread of the original cage just so I could add the nato rail to the top plate. Which now having built in nato rail support, I don’t need to do anything, just slide the handle on top and start filming.

I know a camera cage is only an add on when it comes to filming, but the easier it is to just get out and start recording, the more you’ll enjoy doing it. It’s only been less than 6 months of the Nikon ZR and one very small firmware update, so it’s still very much the beginning. However, now I’ve got the right cage, the rig I had pictured in my head there’s only one thing left to do and that’s keep on creating more. Load up some R3D footage, connect the V mount battery plate to the HawkLock ZR cage and press that RED button.