Keith over at Northlight Images has uncovered a Canon USA patent showing what appears to be a “universal” battery grip for Canon cameras.
It looks like the battery grip itself can use various “adapters” to fit on various camera bodies. There is also gearing that allows you to move the position of the tripod screw.
You can see in the images below two different camera bodies illustrated and how the adapter could work between the camera and the battery grip.
I think this would definitely be a welcomed advance in battery grip design for consumers.
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And now Canon thinks it can get away with a one size fits all....
Give up on profits? Nah. Make a low cost adapter and charge a nice margin. R&D costs for a one time universal battery grip that they don’t need to redesign for every new camera body and charge the same for this grip as for all their body specific grips. A lot more profit in this model.
People with more than one body will likely still buy more than one grip. Especially if bringing multiple bodies on a shoot.
Having said that, given how many imitations to existing models there already are, I'm guessing it is not something that is so easy to patent away to avoid copy-cats!
If a new grip design is only a matter of mechanical shape, designing a new grip should be rather cheap, esp in comparison to profit on selling many copies.
Another possibility is a Video Processing grip that would solve the in camera head buildup. The technology exists, it's just a matter of design.