Battery Grip for 7D - any suggestions?

[michi]

Do the knock-off grips report battery life to the camera?

All the ones I have had do.

[nicku]

i had a non canon battery grip some years ago on a 400D. after 6 months and around 6-7k of images it starting to have some problems with the shutter button ( delays in shooting time and others).
 On my 40D i have the original BG-E2N and after around 50K not even a minor problem. For my 7D i will definitely buy a original grip.

[drummstikk]

My 7D was purchased under "emergency" conditions as my 40D shutter chose midway though day 1 of a three-day job to throw itself a Viking funeral. The job required two bodies, so to get back in business, I just purchased the basics without the niceties, body only and one spare battery.  Going back a month or so later to "finish" the purchase by getting the grip (mostly out of habit), I was shocked how much higher the price of the 7D grip was than what I had paid for the 40D grip. 

So, I delayed the purchase. I am now into year three of the delay still do not miss the grip to any great degree. Being gripless has no downside to me, and in fact has one upside in that my Stroboframe flash bracket is easier to attach and use on a gripless body. Everybody's use case is different and I don't advocate either way, but the bottom line as I see it is that photographs are taken with cameras, lenses and light, natural or otherwise. Ancillary accessories like grips might *look* a little more "professional," but pretty much never make or break a shot. 

If the idea of spending less money on a grip is appealing to you, take a minute to imagine how exciting it would be to spend NO money.

[Forceflow]

If the idea of spending less money on a grip is appealing to you, take a minute to imagine how exciting it would be to spend NO money.

That is a valid point, but I found that having no grip hurts my hands when I do a lot of portrait shooting. (With the 100-400 often at 300mm or something like that) I just have to bend my hand and arm very uncomfortably to hold the camera vertically and often I do not level it right resulting in slightly tilted images. (Yes that can be fixed in PS quite easily, but still it is annoying)
I've been photographing for 10+ years without one and I think it's finally time to get a grip and test that. My usual camera store has their own brand of grips at a somewhat cheaper price than the original. Since they also currently have a 15% discount offer on it I might get it on Saturday after all. We'll see.

@all: Thanks for the input and suggestions! Very helpful an informative as always

[nicku]

My 7D was purchased under "emergency" conditions as my 40D shutter chose midway though day 1 of a three-day job to throw itself a Viking funeral. The job required two bodies, so to get back in business, I just purchased the basics without the niceties, body only and one spare battery.  Going back a month or so later to "finish" the purchase by getting the grip (mostly out of habit), I was shocked how much higher the price of the 7D grip was than what I had paid for the 40D grip.

So, I delayed the purchase. I am now into year three of the delay still do not miss the grip to any great degree. Being gripless has no downside to me, and in fact has one upside in that my Stroboframe flash bracket is easier to attach and use on a gripless body. Everybody's use case is different and I don't advocate either way, but the bottom line as I see it is that photographs are taken with cameras, lenses and light, natural or otherwise. Ancillary accessories like grips might *look* a little more "professional," but pretty much never make or break a shot.

If the idea of spending less money on a grip is appealing to you, take a minute to imagine how exciting it would be to spend NO money.

All my Digital SLR's cameras were gripped; for one and only reason: the superior camera grip and hand possition when shooting vertically. the other big advantage (extra battery life) is not so important in my case.

[boracayangels]

OEM grip for the very similar feel to the shutter release pressure.

There should be plenty of used BG in the market now as of 7Ds.

Had mine since the launch and still pass off as 9/10.

For that amount more and get the same OEM feel. Definitely. Why should your 7D feel like OEM on Landscape and !@#%$ on Potrait.

[DavidRiesenberg]

It depends. The buttons are somewhat more mushy than the body buttons, but I wouldn't call them crap.

[Greengecko]

I saw this thread and had to register, cause I just found a pretty nice grip for my 7D. It's available on eBay and Amazon.  It's called a Vertax, manufactured by Pixel (www.pixelhk.com).  It is much better than the original BG-E7 in two ways: (1) They followed the design of the BG-E9 grip for the Canon 60D, in which the batteries load from the side, not the back, allowing for a much nicer, tapered area for your fingers to hold on. The BG-E7, on the other hand, is very square and blocky, and is uncomfortable to hold. (2) The power button is a slider button accessible with your thumb without releasing the camera. This is a nice improvement over the original, which forces you to hold the camera in your left hand and pinch the button with your right hand.

The down side:  The only thing they failed to do is add some curvature on the left side of the grip to be flush with the 7D camera body. They have other models that do this; why they didn't do it on this model defies logic. So on right, where you hold it, it looks fine, like the original. But to the left, it looks like it's sitting on a flat shelf.

Overall, though, I still recommend it, just because of the improved ergonomics. It's also quite light.