A7C II Accessory Addendum: SmallRig Bottom Mount Plate Review.

This will be a short one. Pretty straightforward.

I stated in an earlier post on this camera:

I am trying to avoid playing dress up with this one. The body changed enough where the half case did not fit and I am trying to make do with the raised hump for my thumb on the camera rather than putting the thumbs up knock off hotshoe dealie on this one. Right now my pinky does feel lost dangling with nowhere to go on the bottom (The mother of all first world problems… Oh no. How will I cope?) but small is what I wanted… Right? That is the point, no? Sony gives a bottom grip away with the much more expensive A7CR but they charge you $158 if you want one for the A7CII. You do you, but to me that is ridiculous. Anything over $100 better have some manner of electronics in it in my little nerd world. Very Leica of you Sony. Would likely look to smallrig if I did get one, but again I want to try getting used to it without anything before I buy anything else. We will see.

Well… I made a purchase. No fault of the camera. Owing to my beef mitts my pinky could use a place to dwell. Instead of the aggressive half case/thumbs up approach last time…

…I tried to be a bit more subtle this time. Chris at the local camera store recommended Smallrig. They are not new to me. Had adorned an a6100 with a small rig dealie in the past. I went for a baseplate with an Arca Swiss adapter. But again, I got it for my pinky. And it did the job just fine allowing me to plant all four fingers on the side of the camera, even if just. But along with that came an unplanned side benefit. I already said I liked the two tone silver top scheme. Well, bought in silver, this grip actually makes the rig look even better to me.

So, in summary:

My pinky now has a place to dwell.
Looks purdy.
Well constructed.
- Quality materials and finish.
- Fits snug and feels all of one.
- Has a well built flip out so that the battery can be accessed without removing it.
- With a magnetic screwdriver dealie that I already lost and has to reorder.
- Has a number of additional thread mounts on the bottom if you are so inclined in addition to the Arca Swiss plate.
All for the very reasonable sum of $29.
- A far better value and better looking solution than the $158 grip Sony offered.