Battery grip, is it necessary ?

the extra batteries sweeteen the pot. You can easily seell the grip for the price he is charging and keep the batteries for yourself.

mr. Unknown wrote in post #10431104
but damn, the bg e8 seems really overpriced. Where do you guys get your grips? I am just not inclined to pay up 150 eurs for a piece of plastic.

Was just wondering the same thing

Absolutely .. if you have massive man hands often a second battery grip bolted onto the first battery grip gives that extra welcome bit of finger wiggle room.

And that extra second grip will give a total of four batteries for those long shooting days, should be enough for about 6,000 frames.

Honestly I would say just buy it with the grip. Try it out for like a week or two. One week with the grip and the other without. Then after that 2 week trial, you could justify weather you want the grip or want. Then if you don't want it, sell it. It's a win-win situation for you if you get the battery grip.

I don't like grips, wastes space in bags

you can't use joe mcnally's technique without a grip, and I like said technique, so a grip is a must.

It makes people think that you're shooting with a $5000 1D and, therefore, must be a pro.

People who use them love them. I've never found a use for them. If somebody hands me a camera with a grip, my first thought is how do I take it off.

I hate grips. Tried it and hated them.

Got rid of my grips because:
-You will collapse from exhaustion before your non-gripped 40D will run out of battery in one shoot. Unless you shoot in Live View all day.
-The screw/gear that holds them together works it's way loose from general usage, so I was constantly having to make sure it was tight all day
-The multi-controller (which lets you select focus points) is not usable when you shoot in portrait while holding the grip. As a result, I never held it by the grip. I don't EVER hold my 1-series bodies by the bottom grip either for the same reason.
-If you have a flash on your camera your camera will point downwards when hanging from your neck or shoulder. Without a grip it hangs nicely with the bottom of the camera and lens laying flat against your body, but with a grip it does not hang nearly as comfortably. It becomes quite a pain when walking around a lot. I could handle it for a couple of hours, but it drove me nuts any longer than that.
-The sketchy connection between the grip and body is a very common point for your camera to throw error codes and stop shooting, requiring a reseat of the grip and powering the cam on and off.
-It's heavier. Some people like this. I hate it.

I don't like grips, much in part for the same reasons Lloyd mentioned. I have NEVER run out of a juice in one session. It only takes 10 seconds to switch the battery.
And the rig is lighter.

I use grips on both of my bodies unless I need to save weight/bulk then off they come. For me this builds versatility into my system.
BTW I have never had issues with the grip to body connection creating error codes.