Battery Grip Problem - Power cuts off

Hey everyone, just recently (last tuesday) I got the Opteka Battery grip through amazon via 47st photo.

A few times for some reason it wouldn't focus or take the shot, and occasionally would not save the image to the CF card. I used it so breifly though that at first didn't know what or why it was doing it.

This weekend however I had a chance to take a lot of pictures and after a while of it working perfectly fine it stopped saving the photos again. Once I noticed it I started paying attention more as to what it was doing and it appears that the power is cutting out, so while focusing or taking a picture or while it writes to the card the power would cut out and whatever was in progress would be lost.

For the rest of the night I used the battery in the camera without a grip and it worked fine.

I wasn't able to figure out specifically what could have been causing it, I cleaned out the grip with the blower and tested it for a bit but sometimes it will work just perfectly and then other times hardly at all with it cutting out so much.

Anyone else have any similar problems to this? I read some things about getting a low battery warning but I never got anything like that in this situation it almost sounds more like a loose contact or something.

Most likely I will send it back for a replacement but has anyone else had to deal with this or figured out why it might act this way?

Thanks

Connection? Mine just doesn't work anymore. I'm hoping it's a connection. Sure it's the grip and not the batteries? Works as a battery pack, but the buttons don't work. Sucks...I did so many verticals with it.....

Yeah I don't know I might need to play with it some more but I tried it out with just the one battery, the canon one that came with it and just one alone, the same issues were cropping up.

If it was only the grip buttons not working it would be easy to figure out however it cuts out the camera operations too so im thinking its either a contact in the grip or perhaps the battery tray. Probably spend tomorrow to figure it out and if its still working incorrectly I'll get an RMA on it.

I have had trouble with the BG-E2 grips (20D/30D), but never the BG-E3 grip. I can't comment on aftermarket versions however.

Give everything a clean and see how you go.

Rob

Yeah honestly I cant figure it out, taking pictures of my cousins Bday it starting cutting out after I got the pictures I wanted and afterwards playing around with it cut out some more, testing now its just fine...

sigh... tomorrow I'll try to run it through the races, make sure all the contacts are secure and cleaned again and everything it tight if I can still reproduce it then it won't hurt to send it back I think, if not at the very least for piece of mind that it wont stop working permanently.

Is there a gap between the tray and grip? With the tray installed, wiggle the tray back and forth. I had a very slight gap on mine and the AA tray is the only one that would cut out. The proprietary tray worked fine. Kind of stupid, but even tough it was new, I took it apart and fixed it. There is a metal L bracket that holds the tray in that was bent just a little off and made the tray loose. I had to take apart the tray pretty far to get the bracket out and bend it in my vise and put the parts back together. Bending the bracket installed in the tray would break the mounts that the bracket attaches to. Don't know if that is your trouble but mine has worked great since.

My dad was having a similar problem with his grip. I told him to take the original camera battery door (that you removed to install the grip) out of the little storage slot on the grip post. He did it, and the grip has worked ever since, no problems. It's an easy solution if for some reason that is causing the problem.

I think I might give that a try KC. Thanks - nope still cuts out

Tomsem, seems like the tray is pretty secure within the grip but at the far end of it who knows. Might look into that also if its possibly keeping it from making a secure contact between the tray and the grip.

(edit)

I think I might as well go ahead and get an RMA on it in the next day or 2 I'll keep testing it but its been pretty consistent over the last few days.

One thing you might try if you haven't allready. Install the grip, turn on the camera, and try and wiggle the tray back and forth with your hand on the edge of the tray. Keep watching the camera power while you do this. Mine had just a little "slop" in it and that is all it took to cause it to power down. It wasn't much at all but you could wiggle it slightly. When I did this, the power would cut out. If it is new.....might just as well return it though. Curious if it is the same problem though.

This is a known issue with the Opteka grip. I bought the unit a few months ago and had the same issue. I exchanged it and the second unit I got worked fine. Don't waste your time with a workaround, just get a replacement.

At the time I ordered it, there was at least one Amazon reviewer that mentioned the same issue. I was just hoping that I wouldn't encounter the same problem...but no such luck.

The exchange was pretty easy and I think they covered the costs of the return. Good luck with your unit.

Vitruvius wrote in post #3716646
Hey everyone, just recently (last tuesday) I got the Opteka Battery grip through amazon via 47st photo.

A few times for some reason it wouldn't focus or take the shot, and occasionally would not save the image to the CF card. I used it so breifly though that at first didn't know what or why it was doing it.

This weekend however I had a chance to take a lot of pictures and after a while of it working perfectly fine it stopped saving the photos again. Once I noticed it I started paying attention more as to what it was doing and it appears that the power is cutting out, so while focusing or taking a picture or while it writes to the card the power would cut out and whatever was in progress would be lost.

For the rest of the night I used the battery in the camera without a grip and it worked fine.

I wasn't able to figure out specifically what could have been causing it, I cleaned out the grip with the blower and tested it for a bit but sometimes it will work just perfectly and then other times hardly at all with it cutting out so much.

Anyone else have any similar problems to this? I read some things about getting a low battery warning but I never got anything like that in this situation it almost sounds more like a loose contact or something.

Most likely I will send it back for a replacement but has anyone else had to deal with this or figured out why it might act this way?

Thanks