20Feb SmallRig low profile 1/4 20 cold shoe adapter
In the past I’ve used a plastic thumb screw style cold shoe adapter (above bottom) for most of my rigs. It’s done a pretty decent job on my Varavon cage but it’s a little big and often sold out. So I started looking for something a little lower profile and a bit more permanent.
After a bit of research I came across the the SmallRig 1/4 20 cold shoe adapter on ebay. For ruffly $7 you basically get a piece of CNC aluminum in the shape of a cold shoe mount. The black anodized aluminum mount comes with two different 1/4 20 screw lengths and you only need a flat head screwdriver to mount it. Tighten the thing down to a spot on your rig and you’ll be good to go.
You can also find them on Amazon, but for whatever reason they’re $10. Basically it provides the same style of mount as the thumb screw model only it’s all metal and doesn’t stick out as far on your camera rig. I often found myself removing the plastic thumb screw style cold shoe adapter because it got in the way when hand held shooting with the Varavon cage. The SmallRig 1/4 20 cold shoe adapter has a low enough profile that it doesn’t really cause problems when handling the camera. It’s also a few dollars cheaper, so it’s a win win.
February 22nd, 2015 at 9:56 am
I’ve recently started using a SmallRig half cage for my a7s and I’ve been very happy with the value for the money. I’ll take $62 for a half cage over $400+ for something from Wooden Camera and the like every time. One thing I noticed too was how sturdy the cold shoes were. I have one mounted on my cage but I tend to use the one built into the top handle as my go-to mounting point.
Not only that but they shipped pretty fast despite coming from China and their customer service was very friendly and helpful when I reached out to them.
February 22nd, 2015 at 11:10 am
I believe they have the a7s cage on sale for $49 right now. I don’t really need a full cage, but the mounting options are perfect.
February 22nd, 2015 at 11:38 am
That’s even better! My only beef with the design is that it comes in 3 pieces which are screwed together…no doubt so that they can sell the anti-twist base separately as it’s own part. I found the screws would work their way loose over time even though there are 3 at each joint but some red threadlocker took care of that…it’s pretty much one piece now!
February 22nd, 2015 at 11:50 am
Loctite does some amazing things.
March 9th, 2015 at 11:03 am
I just got this the other day. Using a single screw is useless. It rotates like crazy. Deejay, did you notice the same problem? BTW, I bought mine from Small Rig directly. It actually came with two additional small screws. You have any idea how big these screws are? Maybe I can use three screws to mount this thing.
March 9th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
I’ve been using mine with wireless packs, monitors, and so on, haven’t had a problems with it coming loose. However I did dab some blue loctite on it before I attached one to my Varavon, Smallrig, and gopro cages. The two tiny screws, are designed for certain smallrig parts from what I understand. I believe they also sell a coldshoe mount with 2 1/4 20 slots for double mounting, but i haven’t tried it.
I’m in a hotel this week, but i have the Gh4 and Varavon cage with me, i’ll do some stress tests on it and see how well it holds.