Battery Grips, are they worth it?

That "once in awhile" heavy body handling may (most likely will) cause an extreme pain for a person that is suffering carpal tunnel. the better advice would be to invest in a light and sturdy monopod with Arca Swiss compatible clamp or tilt head and a good L-Plate for easy switching to portrait orientation, that will improve handling dramatically and eliminate unnecessary joints stress.
Ryananthony said:
handling a 1 series everyday is different than handling a 5div with a grip every once in awhile when the need arises.
 
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I love grips. Been using one for past 10 years. I didn't get one immediately for my 5D4 and it felt naked. Now I have one and it's great. I have it on 90% of the time, and I take it off for special occasions when I want to go light. On my 1DX it's much more painful process to remove the grip.
 
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I think they're wonderful if you are going to shoot in portrait mode. For something that isn't very heavy, they add an amazing amount of weight.

They also come in very handy with a gimbal and heavy lens, because they add weight to the back part of the camera, and help you easily balance the front/back, without a long tripod plate.

But on a 5DIV, if there's even the tiniest chance it will be useful, just buy a cheap knockoff on Amazon. They are remarkably well made... for $50... and if you don't like it, they came with a pair of LPE6 batteries that will work perfectly with your camera :D

And if it does work out and it's something you use day in and out, you can always spend 6x the money to get a real Canon one.

SecureGSM said:
Oh yeah.. And how do you go about it? Hacksaw or angle grinder? :)

tpatana said:
... On my 1DX it's much more painful process to remove the grip...

Ugh! Primitives!

** pulls out laser scalpel **
 
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I have a grip for my 70D. I rarely use it for vertical shooting (usually there is some strap or plate mounted to the tripod screw which is in the way) or to increase battery life (usually have only one battery installed), but my main motivation was to increase the length of the normal horizontal grip. Without the added grip, there is not enough space to comfortably place my little finger on, but with the added grip it feels much better. And your camera looks much more professional!
Of course it comes with the downside of added weight and it is more difficult to support your camera and small lens with the palm of your left hand.

For the 5D4 fortunately the grip is slightly longer and I haven't felt the need to buy a grip for it, yet.
 
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Having got a "free" grip with my 7DII I find I use it with my bigger lens (which is most of the time) but don't need it with the smaller lenses. Main reasons I like the grip are
(1) longer battery life. This is more noticable with the 7DII which seems to eat electrons breakfast, lunch, dinner.
(2) Little finger has something to hold onto
(3) and better balance for the longer lens
(4) very useful for portrait mode with the duplicate buttons

However- as mentioned by others it is a tighter squeeze to fit into my camera bag, and is not so convenient with the smaller lenses, when it just seems to add weight. So if I know I am only going to do a "walk round" I usually take it off.
 
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Public Image

One other factor in favor of battery grips... I think they make the photographer look more professional. If you work with the public shooting events like weddings, the client will be just a bit more likely to feel they got their money's worth if you show up with a gripped body. It's likely they won't know the difference between that and a 1D series pro body.
 
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SecureGSM said:
Sir, I hate to rain on your day, but...you do realise that 500gr heavy vertical grip turns your 5D series body effectively into the 1D heavyweight?

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=31766.msg646889#msg646889



Mt Spokane Photography said:
Its a personal choice, some love them, some hate them. I've never warmed up to using them, I've had several. I do think they should come in handy, but the ones I've had in the past just never worked out well.

I may yet get one for my 5D MK IV, since I will probably never be able to handle a 1 series again due to my carpal tunnel.

I can remove the grip from a 5D MK IV if it becomes a issue, not so for a 1 series. The grips I've had in the past did not make my 5D's feel anywhere near as heavy as my 1D cameras. When using a camera for long periods, I use a monopod, having the shutter release in the correct place when the camera is in portrait position would be very helpful. Still, as noted, I'm reluctant to get yet another grip and then not use it.

BTW, a 1DX II weighs 1526g with battery and CF card, a 5D MK IV weighs 1281g with battery, grip, and CF card. so there is 245 grams less weight (16%).
 
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Voltage Question

Here's a question for the techies in the group...

A long time ago I read that the two batteries in the grip would provide higher voltage to the focus motor in the lens, resulting in faster autofocus. I think the same article said higher battery voltage allowed the 1D series to provide faster autofocus than smaller bodies. I presume that some lenses would benefit from the higher voltage more than others.

Am I remembering that correctly? Do you think that holds true with the current bodies?
 
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Re: Voltage Question

drmikeinpdx said:
Here's a question for the techies in the group...

A long time ago I read that the two batteries in the grip would provide higher voltage to the focus motor in the lens, resulting in faster autofocus. I think the same article said higher battery voltage allowed the 1D series to provide faster autofocus than smaller bodies. I presume that some lenses would benefit from the higher voltage more than others.

Am I remembering that correctly? Do you think that holds true with the current bodies?

Not for faster autofocus. The voltage is no higher thn one battery, except for high current disharge. In a one series camera, the battery voltage is much higher.

FPS as the battery is discharged should be faster than with one battery discharged the same amount. The internal resistance of two batteries in parallel is lower, so the voltage drop is less when high current is being drawn from the batteries. So, when the batteries are down to 1/2 discharged or more, the shutter at high FPS should operate faster.
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
SecureGSM said:
Sir, I hate to rain on your day, but...you do realise that 500gr heavy vertical grip turns your 5D series body effectively into the 1D heavyweight?

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=31766.msg646889#msg646889



Mt Spokane Photography said:
Its a personal choice, some love them, some hate them. I've never warmed up to using them, I've had several. I do think they should come in handy, but the ones I've had in the past just never worked out well.

I may yet get one for my 5D MK IV, since I will probably never be able to handle a 1 series again due to my carpal tunnel.

I can remove the grip from a 5D MK IV if it becomes a issue, not so for a 1 series. The grips I've had in the past did not make my 5D's feel anywhere near as heavy as my 1D cameras. When using a camera for long periods, I use a monopod, having the shutter release in the correct place when the camera is in portrait position would be very helpful. Still, as noted, I'm reluctant to get yet another grip and then not use it.

BTW, a 1DX II weighs 1526g with battery and CF card, a 5D MK IV weighs 1281g with battery, grip, and CF card. so there is 245 grams less weight (16%).

245 grams seems like a tiny little bit in isolation, but added onto the body, it's actually huge.

An LPE6 battery is only 80 grams! It feels like it weighs nothing in your hands. But take a camera with a lens like a 70-200, and a grip that holds two LPE6 batteries, with no batteries, and hold it up to eye level for 10 seconds. Then do the same with 1 battery. Then 2 batteries. The difference of each 80g is remarkable, in my opinion.

Now try to hold the camera rotated, without the grip in the right spot for 10 seconds, 5 times. Suddenly, the grip seems worth the weight :D

I'm not sure about the 5DIV, but on the 80D, it's possible to use a grip + just 1 battery. I've done that lots of times on bird portraiture, when I know that I'm not going to be shooting for more than an hour or two anyways. Another (sort of?) cool thing. On some grips, you can use AA batteries instead of the camera's batteries. I've actually never even tried it, but I guess if you use regular batteries for flashes and carry them around anyways, it's another backup power source of sorts.
 
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Talys said:
I'm not sure about the 5DIV, but on the 80D, it's possible to use a grip + just 1 battery. I've done that lots of times on bird portraiture, when I know that I'm not going to be shooting for more than an hour or two anyways. Another (sort of?) cool thing. On some grips, you can use AA batteries instead of the camera's batteries. I've actually never even tried it, but I guess if you use regular batteries for flashes and carry them around anyways, it's another backup power source of sorts.

All that is quiet true, but up until now, I've never or at least seldom used a battery until it expired, I could easily get 2000+ shots in a session. The 5D MK IV seems to use batteries much faster, but I'm suspicious that the original battery is not totally up to par. I bought a second battery and it seemed to be better. They both have the same date stamped on them, and I did not mark them, so I've lost track as to which is which. I'll mark them so I can track them more easily than looking at camera data.
 
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Re: Voltage Question

Mt Spokane Photography said:
drmikeinpdx said:
Here's a question for the techies in the group...

A long time ago I read that the two batteries in the grip would provide higher voltage to the focus motor in the lens, resulting in faster autofocus. I think the same article said higher battery voltage allowed the 1D series to provide faster autofocus than smaller bodies. I presume that some lenses would benefit from the higher voltage more than others.

Am I remembering that correctly? Do you think that holds true with the current bodies?

Not for faster autofocus. The voltage is no higher thn one battery, except for high current disharge. In a one series camera, the battery voltage is much higher.

FPS as the battery is discharged should be faster than with one battery discharged the same amount. The internal resistance of two batteries in parallel is lower, so the voltage drop is less when high current is being drawn from the batteries. So, when the batteries are down to 1/2 discharged or more, the shutter at high FPS should operate faster.
Tricky one.
I read somewhere that the 1Dx2 AF performance starts to drop one the battery reaches about 40% of charge (I guess 40% of very impressive is still impressive), so I would imagine it would happen sooner with a single battery in the 80D/7D2/5D4, and having a grip with 2 batteries may well maintain the AF performance for longer.
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
All that is quiet true, but up until now, I've never or at least seldom used a battery until it expired, I could easily get 2000+ shots in a session. The 5D MK IV seems to use batteries much faster, but I'm suspicious that the original battery is not totally up to par. I bought a second battery and it seemed to be better. They both have the same date stamped on them, and I did not mark them, so I've lost track as to which is which. I'll mark them so I can track them more easily than looking at camera data.

Yeah, me too, with the exception of USB or WiFi tethering -- that will almost kill 1 fully charged battery and at least 50% of a second one in a full (8ish hour) work day. But it's not like in that situation you can't just stop and pop a new one in.

But this is pretty much why if I'm heading out for an afternoon of hobby shooting, if I want a grip, I'll often just put in one battery in it at a time (there's always a spare in the car anyhow). The exception would be if I'm going to use a gimbal, and I want the back to be heavier to balance easier :D
 
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Canon, at least, do not change the voltage or clock up/down the processor(s), regardless of battery used. 1D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 80D, whatever. No Canon body has ever had variable voltage or clock based on battery power or grip.

Other companies, however do use this. Fuji, for instance, have a 'boost' switch on the grip for the X-T2 which does exactly this; raise the voltage, raise the processor back to stock speed (it's actually underclocked by default), and get higher performance. When you turn the boost switch off, everything returns to normal, despite still having two batteries.

Canon 1Ds already run with higher voltage and higher clock than all other Canon bodies. This is why 1D and 5D bodies of the same generation, with the same processors and both of a 'pro' level, still have a difference in base operation speed. The general rule with DSLRs is you underclock the processor(s) to keep heat down and keep performance consistent; the 1D bodies, exclusively, run their processors at full speed.



All that said, whether you use a grip or not is entirely personal preference. I always do, purely because even when holding the camera landscape, I find a bare 5D or smaller body too small. My fingers dangle off the bottom and it's genuinely distracting, to me, as someone who grew up on large format, medium format, and 1D bodies. Of course, plenty of other people want their camera bodies to get smaller and smaller...

It's entirely personal preference. There's no performance difference. Either you like the feel of it or you don't, that simple. You won't know until you try it; if your local store own't let you try the grip on your body before you buy it, ask if they have a 1D body you can pick up to see if you like the feel of that, since it's essentially the same.
 
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Hi Aceflibble.
Actually I think it goes if the local store won't let you try it you put your wallet back in your pocket, ::) turn and walk whilst saying it's no wonder stores are closing when Amazon will let me send it back!
If that doesn't get their attention you probably don't need to deal with them!

Cheers, Graham.

aceflibble said:
if your local store own't let you try the grip on your body before you buy it, ask if they have a 1D body you can pick up to see if you like the feel of that, since it's essentially the same.
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
Talys said:
I'm not sure about the 5DIV, but on the 80D, it's possible to use a grip + just 1 battery. I've done that lots of times on bird portraiture, when I know that I'm not going to be shooting for more than an hour or two anyways. Another (sort of?) cool thing. On some grips, you can use AA batteries instead of the camera's batteries. I've actually never even tried it, but I guess if you use regular batteries for flashes and carry them around anyways, it's another backup power source of sorts.

All that is quiet true, but up until now, I've never or at least seldom used a battery until it expired, I could easily get 2000+ shots in a session. The 5D MK IV seems to use batteries much faster, but I'm suspicious that the original battery is not totally up to par. I bought a second battery and it seemed to be better. They both have the same date stamped on them, and I did not mark them, so I've lost track as to which is which. I'll mark them so I can track them more easily than looking at camera data.
Which of the new features on your 5D mk 4 are you using? I noticed that mine exhausted the battery much quicker than my 5D mk 3 did, but since I disabled GPS, wifi and the touch screen the battery performance is now about the same. Or are you just saying that you think there was a problem with your original battery?
 
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