If you can remember back in the late 90’s when standard definition DV cameras like the where all the rage, then the name Letus should be familiar to you. They were responsible for making some of the early 35mm lens adapters for DV cameras that didn’t require you to position your camera upside down.

It seems over the years, Letus has branched out into DSLR cages.

The Letus Talon DSLR Cage comes in several Different configurations. The one above has extended sides to allow room for a full battery grip, a smaller version is designed without space for a battery grip, and yet another model (under the same name) is dedicated to the .

Pretty much Everything on the Talon is machined from solid aluminum with 1/4 20 threads spaced evenly across most of it’s surface. Unfortunately machined Aluminum is expensive and the starting price for this cage is around $400. The Cage has gaps and spaces for battery access, hdmi ports and memory cards cut throughout the frame, no ports on the camera are blocked. There is even a cut out on the top of the frame that allows you to see the LCD screen and selector wheel position.

Letus refers to the camera mount as a “releasable camera plate” instead of a quick release plate. This is because there isn’t really a quick way to release the camera, instead it takes the removal of two allen screws. The screws end up in a moderately hard to reach position between the lens and the tripod mount, which makes them a pain to get at if you don’t have a battery grip attached to your camera.

I don’t think Letus really intends for you to remove your camera once it’s been mounted. So they’ve included a slide in cold shoe clamp to secure the top of the camera as well. The aluminum cage also extends past the front and back of the camera body. I found myself laying the rig on its back and sides while attaching random equipment, and it felt very comfortable. The Letus Talon cage provides full camera protection.

Removing the top plate on the Letus Talon is simply a mater of loosening two side clamps and sliding the entire peace off of a set of 15mm rails. The rails are also threaded in cause you’d like to extend them, but they aren’t spaced for any standard equipment. I suppose you might be able to attach a single rail mount follow focus (if you can find one).

Over all the Letus Talon Cage feels very solid, and fully protects your camera, but $400 is quit a bit to invest on a rig that doesn’t provide any rails or handles. If you’re interested in the Letus Talon Cage but don’t want to pay the asking price, there is what appears to be an almost perfect knock off of this rig floating around on ebay under the name .  I’ve seen the Trusmt version listed as low as $250 and I don’t see any real difference between the two. However most of the Trusmt sellers are from china so don’t expect fast shipping.

If you’d like to find out more about the Talon Cage feel free to check out the Letus website.

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