gregnash
19th of August 2008 (Tue), 16:50
So today I finally got my Opteka Battery Grip for my 20D. I picked it up from 47th Street Photo on Ebay for about $95. The company was very good in getting me all information necessary and getting it shipped out in a timely manner.
(Note: pictures will be posted later)
So excited that I was supposed to get it today I ran home on my lunch to see if the big brown truck had been by and dropped the package at my door! Sure enough they had and so I ran inside to play with my new toy quickly before returning to work. Upon opening the package I found that the grip and batteries were packed seperately (as this was a package of 2 batteries and the grip). I stuffed the batteries aside and grabbed the two Sterlingtek BP511 replacements that I had ordered the week before to play with the grip.
The grip comes with two small battery trays that load from the back. Now this was probably the first thing that set me off. While they were secure there was nothing that "hide" them when loaded, they loaded into the back side of the grip however were not covered or hidden. While they seem to load in with a good, audible "CLICK" this is more of an aesthetic thing as it seems quite ugly to me.
Each individual battery tray comes apart into two pieces that you load the batteries into and then snap back together. Once again, while secure I can see that these will eventually wear and break as they are thin plastic and can more then like be bent and misshaped with little effort.
After I loaded the batteries into the grip I was a bit more happy. The grip loaded and secured to the camera VERY tightly. I was impressed with this and the general feel of the grip was OK. The reason it was only OK was because of two things.....
1. you can feel the doors on the back of the grip with your thumb. This did not feel very "comfortable" to me
2. the way the grip is molded there are slight protrusions at each end where the shutter buttons are. I did not like the feel of this as it did not feel natural.
A couple of other things I did not like about it was the placement of the "on/off" switch. This had two modes, A-Type and B-Type. One is ment for normal BP511 style batteries and the other is for the additional AA battery trays you can purchase. This however is a slider switch unlike the normal one you see which I would call a rotational slider, this is a slider like you would see as a lock of some sort (I will take a pic later). This one is at the top end with another switch that allows you to switch between using all batteries in parrallel or a single one in at a time (not serial). On the bottom/left side of the grip is the shutter button that allows you to switch the corner shutter buttons on/off depending on how you are shooting. While nice this is the reason that I am having to send mine back as this switch does not fully click into the on position, thus the shutter buttons only work intermittently.
All in all the grip feels that it is built very solidly however the overall "ergonomic" feel does not fit my overall feel.
I give it an 6/10
(Note: pictures will be posted later)
So excited that I was supposed to get it today I ran home on my lunch to see if the big brown truck had been by and dropped the package at my door! Sure enough they had and so I ran inside to play with my new toy quickly before returning to work. Upon opening the package I found that the grip and batteries were packed seperately (as this was a package of 2 batteries and the grip). I stuffed the batteries aside and grabbed the two Sterlingtek BP511 replacements that I had ordered the week before to play with the grip.
The grip comes with two small battery trays that load from the back. Now this was probably the first thing that set me off. While they were secure there was nothing that "hide" them when loaded, they loaded into the back side of the grip however were not covered or hidden. While they seem to load in with a good, audible "CLICK" this is more of an aesthetic thing as it seems quite ugly to me.
Each individual battery tray comes apart into two pieces that you load the batteries into and then snap back together. Once again, while secure I can see that these will eventually wear and break as they are thin plastic and can more then like be bent and misshaped with little effort.
After I loaded the batteries into the grip I was a bit more happy. The grip loaded and secured to the camera VERY tightly. I was impressed with this and the general feel of the grip was OK. The reason it was only OK was because of two things.....
1. you can feel the doors on the back of the grip with your thumb. This did not feel very "comfortable" to me
2. the way the grip is molded there are slight protrusions at each end where the shutter buttons are. I did not like the feel of this as it did not feel natural.
A couple of other things I did not like about it was the placement of the "on/off" switch. This had two modes, A-Type and B-Type. One is ment for normal BP511 style batteries and the other is for the additional AA battery trays you can purchase. This however is a slider switch unlike the normal one you see which I would call a rotational slider, this is a slider like you would see as a lock of some sort (I will take a pic later). This one is at the top end with another switch that allows you to switch between using all batteries in parrallel or a single one in at a time (not serial). On the bottom/left side of the grip is the shutter button that allows you to switch the corner shutter buttons on/off depending on how you are shooting. While nice this is the reason that I am having to send mine back as this switch does not fully click into the on position, thus the shutter buttons only work intermittently.
All in all the grip feels that it is built very solidly however the overall "ergonomic" feel does not fit my overall feel.
I give it an 6/10