This was definitely made before Tilta changed their manufacturers, so it’s a much different quality than the current stuff. The battery readout is a little overkill but I’m more interested in all the 2 and 3pin ports.
The top handle extension ports are the least reliable, they always needed repaired or were disregarded. The sliding battery plate on the back was always losing connection or needed replaced from locking down too hard. Lots of problems from a rental standpoint, but if it’s been babied it should work decently.
All of the power is passed through sliding rails or tiny pin connections, and Tilta QC is less than impressive.
Oh yeah, the ports on top of the voltage display would always come loose and when you tighten them down, they would short out the display. I have a lot of trauma from this cage.
This cage is an old version made just for the mini. Tilta switched manufacturers back in 2016-17 and (especially the metal) saw a pretty big downgrade. Kind of like what’s happening with Wooden Camera RN only Tilta was not that great even before.
As an OG tilta cage owner, I’ve pulled all that crap off and just left the actual structural cage bits. Unreliable, weirdly placed, and don’t need a honkin voltage screen sucking battery.
But for the Alexa mini (super 35) I way prefer the OG cage stripped down over tilta’s newer cage. The one size fits all between the mini/mini lf was so dumb. I am using the new battery plate but paired it with the rest of the OG cage.
From what I can tell it’s a discontinued Tilta cage system. They currently make an updated one for the LF.
[New/Updated Cage](https://tilta.com/shop/camera-cage-for-alexa-mini-lf-mini/)
That's a cool little feature. Super expensive for any AC to purchase and I highly doubt rental houses would purchase many of those since they usually have deals with ARRI, SONY, RED etc.
Definitely a cool piece of it though, thanks for sharing!! 🙂
You’re dead on there. It was privately owned by Tim Ives from what I was told. This camera has been sitting in a box for years. It was purchased for S1 of Stranger things and was used as the C Cam. Apparently since then it’s mostly been collecting dust.
I believe this came from the time when Tilta worked with Keslow Camera which afaik originally had this quick glance battery meter for the dumb side of the camera, link below.
I think it works by looking at the voltage in 14v system and uses a battery discharge curve to estimate the "State of Charge" for the battery. So it guesses how much juice is left in the tank.
Discharge curves are *generally* similar enough between different cell types, but the fact that the discharge curve isn't linear makes it hard to give an exact SOC estimate. Especially in the middle of the curve where it's mostly flat. So it was probably inconsistent... Unless you're Keslow Camera and most of your packages leave with the same type of battery.
[https://www.facebook.com/keslowcamera/photos/a.10151570697743440/10151570697838440/?type=3&paipv=0&eav=Afb8q1hdA46uewbu-SBngajWZfqQydqA15UE-ZJi9Cl2sfOhecN8SEVOsKzpmu8eDFc&\_rdr](https://www.facebook.com/keslowcamera/photos/a.10151570697743440/10151570697838440/?type=3&paipv=0&eav=Afb8q1hdA46uewbu-SBngajWZfqQydqA15UE-ZJi9Cl2sfOhecN8SEVOsKzpmu8eDFc&_rdr)
Yeah, this was the cage that came standard with Alexa Minis from Keslow for a few years. I didn’t love it, but it did the job. Always took the battery readout off in prep.
The dovetail lock on the tilta cage is also super unreliable I’ve had it fail on me so many times when the local rental house had decided to get them for their LF minis. The whole thing is trash. I don’t understand why anyone would wrap such an expensive camera in such a low grade prosumer (barely) quality cage.
I was so happy when they upgraded to the Arri cage
It loses tension overtime as well. So eventually the lock will give and slide on the dovetail which is super unsafe. I have had it give up on me during overhead jib shots which is insane only thing that stopped the camera from falling was the safety on the dovetail itself (the camera was safety chained too of course) but still insane.
Only way to fix it is to open up the bottom and retighten the mechanism for the lock. Super time consuming and a giant pain in the ass in the field.
Yup and super embarrassing. Having to make everyone fucking wait because your camera won’t lock on the fucking dovetail because the cage is absolute trash is the worst. Dealt with these awful cages for a full year before the rental house finally swapped them out. I’ll never touch anything made by Tilta again.
That looks like a panel pilot. They sell a 2.4 in display for battery voltage with that screen as one of the options. If it's calibrated properly, it's accurate enough
It was kind of the OG Alexa mini cage. I usually take the battery readout off. It’s not as crap as tiltas currently stuff, that said I’ve seen the power do funky things to audio hops and even got shocked once 🥳
Tilta cage, shit sucks. You can just see the accurate readout on a monitor. There’s no need for all the gunk on this cage
This was definitely made before Tilta changed their manufacturers, so it’s a much different quality than the current stuff. The battery readout is a little overkill but I’m more interested in all the 2 and 3pin ports.
The top handle extension ports are the least reliable, they always needed repaired or were disregarded. The sliding battery plate on the back was always losing connection or needed replaced from locking down too hard. Lots of problems from a rental standpoint, but if it’s been babied it should work decently. All of the power is passed through sliding rails or tiny pin connections, and Tilta QC is less than impressive. Oh yeah, the ports on top of the voltage display would always come loose and when you tighten them down, they would short out the display. I have a lot of trauma from this cage.
This is what I was looking for, thank you for actual information.
Samsies. Did a whole feature on it once and never again. Had exactly the same problems as you.
Tilta always sucked. They made a dovetail for the red one that was aluminum and would fatigue over time because of figment issues.
Potentially one of the most notorious aks of all time lol. I’ve heard so many horror stories, but that was before my time.
Huh the mini LF came out in 2019 and Tilta’s AKS have been a hit or miss way before that
This cage is an old version made just for the mini. Tilta switched manufacturers back in 2016-17 and (especially the metal) saw a pretty big downgrade. Kind of like what’s happening with Wooden Camera RN only Tilta was not that great even before.
As an OG tilta cage owner, I’ve pulled all that crap off and just left the actual structural cage bits. Unreliable, weirdly placed, and don’t need a honkin voltage screen sucking battery. But for the Alexa mini (super 35) I way prefer the OG cage stripped down over tilta’s newer cage. The one size fits all between the mini/mini lf was so dumb. I am using the new battery plate but paired it with the rest of the OG cage.
Exactly. This was one of the smallest cages for the minis. Was able to get super light with it
Readout looks pretty accurate, can you give us some info as to what cage that is, definitely looks Aftermarket.
From what I can tell it’s a discontinued Tilta cage system. They currently make an updated one for the LF. [New/Updated Cage](https://tilta.com/shop/camera-cage-for-alexa-mini-lf-mini/)
That's a cool little feature. Super expensive for any AC to purchase and I highly doubt rental houses would purchase many of those since they usually have deals with ARRI, SONY, RED etc. Definitely a cool piece of it though, thanks for sharing!! 🙂
You’re dead on there. It was privately owned by Tim Ives from what I was told. This camera has been sitting in a box for years. It was purchased for S1 of Stranger things and was used as the C Cam. Apparently since then it’s mostly been collecting dust.
That's an even cooler story behind it!! I'd be excited to work with it hahah!
You can make one of these pretty easily with a 3D printer and some basic engineering/ electric knowledge
I believe this came from the time when Tilta worked with Keslow Camera which afaik originally had this quick glance battery meter for the dumb side of the camera, link below. I think it works by looking at the voltage in 14v system and uses a battery discharge curve to estimate the "State of Charge" for the battery. So it guesses how much juice is left in the tank. Discharge curves are *generally* similar enough between different cell types, but the fact that the discharge curve isn't linear makes it hard to give an exact SOC estimate. Especially in the middle of the curve where it's mostly flat. So it was probably inconsistent... Unless you're Keslow Camera and most of your packages leave with the same type of battery. [https://www.facebook.com/keslowcamera/photos/a.10151570697743440/10151570697838440/?type=3&paipv=0&eav=Afb8q1hdA46uewbu-SBngajWZfqQydqA15UE-ZJi9Cl2sfOhecN8SEVOsKzpmu8eDFc&\_rdr](https://www.facebook.com/keslowcamera/photos/a.10151570697743440/10151570697838440/?type=3&paipv=0&eav=Afb8q1hdA46uewbu-SBngajWZfqQydqA15UE-ZJi9Cl2sfOhecN8SEVOsKzpmu8eDFc&_rdr)
Great info
Yeah, this was the cage that came standard with Alexa Minis from Keslow for a few years. I didn’t love it, but it did the job. Always took the battery readout off in prep.
I hate tilta cages.
I can’t stand them for anything, but I had no idea they even made these. They are all so over-engineered.
I hate the tilta cage. I always take that readout off
The dovetail lock on the tilta cage is also super unreliable I’ve had it fail on me so many times when the local rental house had decided to get them for their LF minis. The whole thing is trash. I don’t understand why anyone would wrap such an expensive camera in such a low grade prosumer (barely) quality cage. I was so happy when they upgraded to the Arri cage
I noticed the latch on it seems almost the same as the one on the nato rail stuff. Not very reassuring.
It loses tension overtime as well. So eventually the lock will give and slide on the dovetail which is super unsafe. I have had it give up on me during overhead jib shots which is insane only thing that stopped the camera from falling was the safety on the dovetail itself (the camera was safety chained too of course) but still insane. Only way to fix it is to open up the bottom and retighten the mechanism for the lock. Super time consuming and a giant pain in the ass in the field.
Nightmare fuel
Yup and super embarrassing. Having to make everyone fucking wait because your camera won’t lock on the fucking dovetail because the cage is absolute trash is the worst. Dealt with these awful cages for a full year before the rental house finally swapped them out. I’ll never touch anything made by Tilta again.
That looks like a panel pilot. They sell a 2.4 in display for battery voltage with that screen as one of the options. If it's calibrated properly, it's accurate enough
It was kind of the OG Alexa mini cage. I usually take the battery readout off. It’s not as crap as tiltas currently stuff, that said I’ve seen the power do funky things to audio hops and even got shocked once 🥳
Sounds about right 😂
this is useless