Sony RX1R II Fixed EVF Case

Not using the EVF of your RX1R II as often as you could? Want the camera to feel more like a mini-rangefinder and less like a point-and-shoot? This rugged 3D printed housing for the RX1R II improves on the design of the camera by securely snapping on to the body and then allowing the EVF to be extended at all times. In my experience, this makes the usage of the camera  more intuitive and  makes me much more likely to use the EVF when framing and shooting. After almost two years of use and refinement, I can confidently say that this feels like a natural evolution of the camera that should have been there from the beginning.

How does it work?
The strong, durable 3D printed plastic case  locks around the structural points of the camera itself (the body, the strap lug, the hot shoe) so that it totally eliminates any force being transferred to the EVF. The exact case in the product photos here has been on my camera for almost a year of heavy use (hiking, traveling, being used as a play camera by a toddler, etc...)  and, as you can see, it is still very clean and undamaged. 




Installation Instructions: 

1. By hand, snap off the "Hot Shoe Locking Piece" that is attached to the inside of the 3D printed case. Clean up any sharp residues on this Hot Shoe piece. Material left inside the case should be fine, as it is recessed from the surface of the camera and should not interfere with assembly. 
2. Remove any camera strap you have on the left side of the camera
3. Remove any hot shoe cover that may be in place. 
4. Put the EVF in the down position, with the diopter adjusted properly for your eye
5. Looking at the back of the camera, bring the EVF Case from an upper left angle, down on to the camera,  first hooking the left strap lug, and then rotating clockwise around that lug to snap fit over the lens body and the hot shoe mount. You should feel things click into place.
6. Use the EVF switch on the body of the camera to extend the EVF. If there is any friction against the 3D printed part, use a small, soft tool of some sort to help the EVF extend fully. It must reach full vertical extension and then have the rear optic slide backwards (towards the eye) in order for the diopter adjustment to be correct. 
7. Once you've ensured that the EVF is extending fully and the diopter adjustment is correct, push in the "Hot Shoe Locking Piece" into the hot shoe slot on the back of the 3D printed case. It should fit snugly and end perfectly flush with the rest of the 3D printed case
8. If the EVF does not extend fully, it is likely there is an area which is causing friction against the EVF body.  Remove the case by lightly prying under the material by the hot shoe with a small knife or screwdriver (doing assembly in reverse) and then scrape at the interfering surfaces on the case with a sharp tool (knife, sandpaper, etc) while the case is off the camera. I've tweaked the tolerances on this part over multiple 3D printing iterations (10+ prints, 60+ revisions to the 3D) so that this step is hopefully not necessary, but sometimes the 3D printing process leaves rough spots which may need to be smoothed down. Then, reinstall.
9. Re-install any camera straps, etc. 
10. Use!
11. If you ever need to remove the case, you can extract the Hot Shoe Locking Piece by using the tip of a sharp knife on the left and right sides of the gap between the locking piece and the body. There are knife grooves just beneath the surface that make extraction easy once you get it out 0.5mm or so.

Important to note:

1. This case uses the hot shoe as a structural mounting point, so it precludes the use of the hot shoe for anything else. 
2. This case is not compatible with any sort of eyepiece fittings for the EVF. (I wear glasses myself. It's fine.)
3. Credit to Shapeways user Hexagonal for prodding me about whether something like this would be possible!