Digital Diversity

Since the day I started reading up about DSLR’s I kept hearing about battery grips. I wasn’t sure what the were at the time or even what they looked like. After a bit of research I found out they were a grip that slotted into your battery compartment. The extra grip is added to the bottom of the camera making it a similar shape to that of the Canon 1D series only smaller. I sort of shrugged off the idea of getting one when I first got my camera thinking of it as a bit of a gimmick to make your camera look more ‘pro’.

As I carried on my adventures of learning photography online (being glued to flickr) the subject of battery grips kept creeping in to conversations. Maybe there was more to them than I had realised. Surprise surprise there was. A battery grip allows you the following:

• Extra grip at the bottom of the camera
• Second set of buttons on this grip
• Can hold 2 batteries rather than 1
• Second battery cartridge for using AA’s if needed

I decided I must have one.

I ordered mine online and it arrived the next day.

Bulky little thing isn’t it. It connects to the camera using the tri-pod screw and by inserting into the battery compartment of your camera. This gives it a very solid connection and makes it feel like part of the camera.

Here is my camera with no grip attached

Here is what it looks like once the grip has been attached.

It makes your camera a fair bit larger at the bottom but this doesn’t bother me. In fact I prefer it. Before when holding the camera there was no where really for my little finger to go. It just sort of floated about under the camera. With the grip attached my whole hand is on there now giving me a more firm hold. The extra weight is also welcome to me as it helps me keep the camera steady. You can also see in this image that it does not stop you being able to use a tri-pod. The grip itself has a tri-pod screw at the bottom. You can see in the image above that it is attached to my mini tri-pod in this way.

A battery grip is also known as a portrait grip by some. The reason for this is that it makes taking portrait photo’s a lot more comfortable. I never really used portrait orientation that much because the awkward way you have to hold the camera. Its both uncomfortable and I easily ended up with wonky pictures as its an unnatural way to hold the camera.

The battery grip makes taking portrait a lot more natural and even without thinking about it I have found myself composing in portrait orientation a lot more.

Below you can see me holding the camera in standard Landscape orientation. As you can see my whole hand fits nicely on the camera.

Here you can see me holding it in portrait orientation. Its now practically the same as when shooting in landscape. The extra buttons you get on this model are a trigger, a scroll wheel and the + and – buttons. This means I can still change all the settings while holding the camera this way.

The last thing to talk about is the battery compartment. This grip came with 2 cartridges. 1 that holds 2 li-ion batteries (like the one you get with your camera) and a second that can hold AA’s. This is great if you are possibly going somewhere where charging batteries is unlikely. You can take 2 li-ion batteries that should last you ages and then take some AA’s as a backup in case they run out. The li-ion cartridge can use only 1 battery if you don’t want to buy a second. However, I did as I wanted the extra battery life. I have been using this grip for a month and haven’t had to charge the batteries since.

Below is the 500d with grip attached and the 2 cartridges. Only one type of cartridge can fit in the grip at a time so I keep the AA’s cartridge in my camera bag just in case its needed.

Do you need a grip?

Well no you don’t really need one but I doubt I will ever take mine off. I like the extra size, weight, battery life and easy portrait use. So as much as I don’t need one I’m very happy I have one. I don’t need power steering on my car but I’m damn glad I have that as well.

However if you want to travel as light as possible, are not bothered about just taking a spare battery in your bag or pocked, have small hands and don’t really shoot portrait shots, then you probably wouldn’t want to use one. But for me it was worth every penny.

Tags: 500D, AA batteries, accessories, battery grip, camera, Canon, DSLR, li-ion, photography, portrait, portrait grip, thoughts

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 10:07 and is filed under photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.