Third party Battery grips BG-E2

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Steve
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Hi all :wave:

I know this has probably been asked before but I don't know the answer so I'll ask anyway :)

Can you recommend a decent BG-E2 battery grip other than the Canon original?

Many thanks in advance
 
Ooops sorry mods, just realised I posted in the wrong forum :bonk:
 
They have a few on e-bay that are good.
I have 2 and have never had a problem with them.
 
Now, I don't want to rock the boat here but after using a third party battery grip for little under two months (bought in April) my 30D stopped working.

I took it into my local Canon service centre and booked it in by the skin of it's teeth under warranty (expired in beginning of June 08), when I got my camera back a week or so later, the report revealed that main PCB board had blown, this, according to the service centre, is one of the most expensive components to replace with the exception of sensor replacement, so I should count myslef lucky as the warranty was still valid.

NOTE: I kept the use of a third party grip completely under my hat when taking the camera for repair, I didn't want to hear the 'Don't use third party stuff or your Canon will explode' lecture and I most certainly wasn't going to give them any info that may invalidate my smidge of remaining warranty.

I really don't know if using a third party grip was to blame for definite, but my 30D was still it's first year with me and it was bought brand new from Warehouse Ex last june, it showed no signs of malfunction before the battery grip was used.

My rough guess is that maybe the third party grip somehow overloaded the board having two batteries connected, maybe it would have been different if I had only used one battery?

Maybe it packed in as I have used it alot over the last year (some 80,000 actuations). Probable. yes.

Anyway I thought I'd better pipe up just in casey.

All the best.
T.
 
foodpoison said:
Thanks for that Tomas, very interesting.
I was thinking about getting a XYMT (or whatever they're called) grip for around £50, but I don't think I will now.
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I think that's exactly the model no: I bought from Gadget Infinity :thinking:

But seriously, I don't know it was the reason my 30D croaked for certain.
I have a job this Saturday and I'm tempted to use the 30D with the third party grip with one battery only as I find the vertical shutter release more than helpful but at the same time I don't want it to die in the middle of a job! I use a 1Dmki and the 30D but still, I really do need both operational. hmmm.....

If the only the Canon versions weren't so ridiculously over priced! :razz:
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
I think that's exactly the model no: I bought from Gadget Infinity :thinking:

But seriously, I don't know it was the reason my 30D croaked for certain.
I have a job this Saturday and I'm tempted to use the 30D with the third party grip with one battery only as I find the vertical shutter release more than helpful but at the same time I don't want it to die in the middle of a job! I use a 1Dmki and the 30D but still, I really do need both operational. hmmm.....

If the only the Canon versions weren't so ridiculously over priced! :razz:
Click to expand...

Imagine how much of a chump you would feel if it also killed the 30D, you have likely put a few off buying this particular grip so why risk it again yourself, "hindsight is a great thing".
 
Galaxy66 said:
Imagine how much of a chump you would feel if it also killed the 30D, you have likely put a few off buying this particular grip so why risk it again yourself, "hindsight is a great thing".
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All temptation has been razed. Thanks for slappin me face a bit. :thumbs:

Oh wow, what a cool new paperweight!
 
I have also considered buying 3rd party grip for my 40D but after googling and asking some forums, majority say "don't go that route". So I just bought Original grip from
7dayshop which sell the cheapest at the mo.
 
I personally wouldn't but I can completely understand those who want to.
 
Marcel said:
I personally wouldn't but I can completely understand those who want to.
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Me too, after a reasonable think on the matter I'm not going to attempt using the third party grip again and I'm not going to try and sell it on either.

If the grip was to blame for the temporary death with my 30D, I suspect that it was the combination of two batteries at once that caused the overload. :shrug:
 
@Tomas - now you got me thinking. Though I use original Canon Grip, I use 3rd party batteries rated 7.4V 1500mAh.
 
I bought one of these and haven't had an issue with it (touch wood).
 
Garry79 said:
I bought one of these and haven't had an issue with it (touch wood).
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Mmmmm, that's actually the one I was considering, but now I'm not so sure :thinking: Anyway thanks guys for the info :clap::clap:

Steve
 
Ive had a grip on my 350 for ages. It is virtually indistuinguishable from the real canon one, other than not having canon written on it and it costing half the price. Works perfectly *** the supplied batteries were really crap.
Why does the word (t-h-o) get starred out? its not rude?
 
I have YXTM grip on my 400D and 2x 2000mAh Batts - never had a problem.
With all the horror stories though i when i upgrade to a 40D i will get the official grip.
 
chameleon said:
Why does the word (t-h-o) get starred out? its not rude?
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Because it text speak, you'll find a lot of texting abreviations are affected the same way, it's so the forums don't get filled up with text speak.
 
chameleon said:
Why does the word (t-h-o) get starred out? its not rude?
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Well, (t-h-o) represents a technology based language development born from numerical/character based key pads largely found on mobile phones and due to comprehensive value and of the image it portay's of the user, is banned on TP. :nono: :lol: (What Steep said!):lol:

33L said:
I have YXTM grip on my 400D and 2x 2000mAh Batts - never had a problem.
With all the horror stories though i when i upgrade to a 40D i will get the official grip.
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How long have you been using it? I've read somewhere that so far only 30D seems to have a reaction, and I'd place a small wager that there were two batteries installed in the battery magazine :suspect:
 
had the grip for nearly a year now! - i rather the official one as i know warranty will not be void!
 
I was in the same situation, found that Canon grips went for too much on ebay and didnt really trust using a 3rd party grip. Eventually a Canon BG-E2N grip appeared on MPB, second hand, but like new, boxed with a spare battery for £84. Could not resist and bought it, love it and its never off the camera now.
 
For the price of a new third party grip you can most likely find a second hand Canon grip.

Without being more specific as to what was 'blown' on your PCB it's difficult to say what caused it, if it looked like a supply problem, i.e. current overload blowing a track or similar then I can understand the blame maybe being pointed to the batt grip.

However, the tech behind a battery grip is not rocket science and I'd bet that the internals are not far different between a Canon and 'reputable' third party manufacturer, most of the costing will be saved on the cosmetics/ergonomics and branding at a guess.
 
I just feel a wee bit uneasy about using third part stuff on my DSLR in general.

Way I see it is if I skimp on one area of my gear it may be my undoing.

Case in point £1000 worth of gear on a £40 tripod.
 
Hallsy said:
For the price of a new third party grip you can most likely find a second hand Canon grip.

Without being more specific as to what was 'blown' on your PCB it's difficult to say what caused it, if it looked like a supply problem, i.e. current overload blowing a track or similar then I can understand the blame maybe being pointed to the batt grip.

However, the tech behind a battery grip is not rocket science and I'd bet that the internals are not far different between a Canon and 'reputable' third party manufacturer, most of the costing will be saved on the cosmetics/ergonomics and branding at a guess.
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Hi,

I nearly won a few bids on Canon grips, it was certainly my preference.

The repair report roughly translated from Finnish to English as:

"Main PCB Board replacement due to overload. Cause unknown"

That's why I stabbed at the two batteries theory. Maybe the third party grip allowed too much juice from using both batteries in the grips magazine. :shrug:
I'm no electronics expert and I have mentioned many times over that I don't know for certain the grip was to blame.

Cheers
T.
 
Tomas, sure,it may well have been the cause, I was just thinking from both sides!

There's plenty on here who use third party lenses!! I suppose me personally, as I have one on the way, would still prefer original Canon hardware, but if someone could recommend a third party model that seemed good quality I would not disregard it!
 
Hallsy said:
Tomas, sure,it may well have been the cause, I was just thinking from both sides!

There's plenty on here who use third party lenses!! I suppose me personally, as I have one on the way, would still prefer original Canon hardware, but if someone could recommend a third party model that seemed good quality I would not disregard it!
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Same here, I have a couple o Sigma primes that are simply great, the AF speed and accuracy are no where near L quality but in most scenerio's allowances can be made. :thumbs:
 
I've had the XYMT grip on now for about 18 months, maybe 2 years without any problems at all. I'd probably buy another too, but if money was not tight at the time I needed/wanted it, I might go the original.

Mick.
 
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