Battery Grip. Good or bad

AJR SIMPSON

AJR SIMPSON

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I have a 5dMK2 and am thinking about getting a battery holder and to use rechargeable AAs, does anyone have advice either way?
I'm mainly using it for landscapes on a tripod but do use it hand held with the 24-104 as a walk about.
Will it become too bulky in hand or too clumsy to use on a tripod?
 
I use a grip when out shooting wildlife. For landscapes I take it off as I use a L bracket. I find the L brackets that fit grips are too bulky to keep on all the time. The benefits of the additional battery and a shutter button in portrait is helpful and the main reasons I use it. If you shooting in portrait often it makes things easier.
 
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I consider the grip to be a must accessory…
  • increases inertia of the gear
  • increases dramatically autonomy
Only there two points are enough arguments when
one has no health issues!

The larger L-bracket is protecting both the camera
and the grip so is constantly on as well.
 
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I think they balance things better, well apart from small lenses
 
AJR SIMPSON said:
Will it become too bulky in hand or too clumsy to use on a tripod?
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How good is your tripod head, how big is the removable plate if it uses one? You are moving the camera further away from the top of the legs with the grip. [BTW. I have a grip gadget for my Nikon, I have not even tried putting batteries in it yet, but I found my original manfrotto head was incapable of holding the camera steady .... although it was fine with the Mamiya. Just sayin...].
 
I find that having a battery pack bolted to the bottom of my cameras cuts down camera shake handheld due to the extra weight. The Nikon one on My D800 also has a shutter button which is useful for vertical shots as well as a joystick toggle plus shutter speed adjustment and AF button. makes things so much easier.
 
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They can have quite a bit of play in them. Not like they're locked down securely all the way around the body. Not likely that's going to be much of an issue most of the time, but not ideal either if you're trying to lock off the camera on a tripod. If your main use is tripod mounted, I see no reason to have one.

I used to use one on my 5D (with a second battery, not AAs - that must way a fair bit). Didn't bother getting grips with the 5D3s when I upgraded, and really enjoyed having small cameras again.
 
Have one on my 6d, had one on my 40d.
Really appreciate the additional battery life.
Also enjoy the larger form as I have chip shovels instead of hands.
I got a clone, approx £30 from Amazon instead of the original Canon version. Not too expensive if you decide it's not for you ....
 
Thanks for all the input and points I never thought on.
It looks like I will give one a try, mainly as I've just scored 72 new unused 2600ah rechargeables that were getting thrown out at work :-)
 
all ways had a grip on mine
 
Well the old 5D was a bit of a brick anyway so with the grip it's a brick and a half!
Just fitted the grip to the camera so time to go take some photos.
 
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