Unregistered.Coward wrote in post #13060281
There is nothing esoteric about the battery, it's basically two AAs in a container. Rather insulting that Canon would charge the prices they do for them.
Even more insulting that they continually change the form factor just enough to not make them interchangeable.
Not defending Canon (they can do that themselves), but the new LP-E6 are good and an upgrade to lithium was overdue. Nikon had made the switch some years earlier. Canon now has done the same across the entire line of cameras... 1D series type batts (LP-E4), 7D/60D type (LP-E6), and the Rebel/xxxD series (LP-E8).
The new batteries probably get about 50% more shots than the best of the earlier ones (comparing BP511/512 series that I'm most familiar with over the years).
And the new battteries do have some sort of "smart circuitry" chip added that gives considerably more accurate and more detailed battery condition info. Seems a little gimmicky in some respects, but is nice to have better idea of battery condition at times.
And, the BP511/512 series had at least a ten year run... AFAIK, they were at lease used in everything from the D30 in 2000 through the 50D discontinued a year or so ago. I'd hardly call that "continually changing the form factor". Other cameras used them too... 5D classic... G5 are a couple I know of. I'm sure there were more.
The 5D Mark II might have been the first model to use the new LP-E6, in late 2008. They were really pricey and hard to get early on... I had to order from a couple different stores and paid over $100 apiece for them in early 2009. Thankfully there are now some third party clones that work the same way as the Canon, if nothing else the competition has helped drive down the price of the Canon OEM batts.
And, with BP511 series I used to always carry two backup for every one in my cameras, to be sure I had enough juice for a full day''s shooting. With the LP-E6 I find one backup is plenty... In fact I rarely need to switch batteries at all during a day's shoot (unless I forget to charge them up). So, in this respect, if you shoot a lot and need backups, the new batts. might be a little more cost efficient than you first think (though this doesn't make them "cheaper"... I bought BP511 clones as cheap as $8 a battery including shipping... they worked just fine!)
Canon (and 3rd party such as Zeikos) would get bonus points if they just included a battery with their grip, when you buy one. D'oh... Most people buying a grip are gonna need or want it.
OP, the OEM grip shutter release button is also slightly different feel than the one on the camera. That's because the one on 7D is same type as used on 1D series... I forget the specifics. But the one on the grip isn't. Now, Canon did a pretty good job matching them, and the other buttons seem identical, so after using the OEM grip for a while I don't even notice the difference. Maybe you'll find the same with the Zeikos grip.
| 
