3rd party battery grips?

rgrebby

rgrebby

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Richard
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The BG-E6 for the 5dmk2 is pretty cheap if you get the fake non canon ones.

Should I be careful even if they have a 1 year warrenty?
 
I've got the Opteka one for the 400D, it works a treat. Apparently they're made in the same mould in the same factory as the official Canon ones, yet are half the price and include 2 batteries :D
 
There is a review on here somewhere about a 3rd party grip and it came out slightly better than the genuine alough i think it was on a nikon
 
Get a MeiKe one, I have been using one on my 5D2 and it cost me just £79.

The Canon genuine one is just like their batteries, Overpriced :gag:





ps I use Clone batteries too, sod £54 for an Nimh battery when I can get one for £15
 
dentedshed said:
Looking at your .sig up there^^^ I'm estimating that you have about £6K worth of gear yet you are worried about £160. I don't get it. :shrug:
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An expensive camera is better than a cheap camera (usually).

An expensive lens is better than a cheap lens (usually).

An expensive grip is not better than a cheap grip.

As a matter of fact the joystick on the Meike D700/D300 grip is superior to the one on the Nikon grip, since the Meike one clicks whereas the Nikon one is squidgy and you don't know if you've pressed it or not.

No point wasting money for the hell of it...
 
dentedshed said:
Looking at your .sig up there^^^ I'm estimating that you have about £6K worth of gear yet you are worried about £160. I don't get it. :shrug:
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spend money on stuff in the optical chain. £160 is TWO freaking 50 1.8s... A grip isn't any more than a plastic box with a few wires inside it...

I look at it with the view that I can break 4 of them before it'll cost me the same as one official nikon one... it's a grip, if it dies mid shoot, can always just take it off... who cares.

I haven't managed to break either of the 2 linkdelight grips that get constant use from me though...
 
I have a 5d2, 17-40L, 24-105L, 100-400L, A tokina 100mm F2.8, and a cupboard full of bits and bobs.

As an Engineer I look at everything from an engineering and electronics design angle. I worked on Military computers for Ferranti many years ago so look at every aspect.

The MeiKe grip I use is functionaly, materialy and design wise Identical to my mates Genuine grip. In fact the battery cover catch on mine is more positive.

So why pay more for an item of similar qaulity and identical functionality.

I can't buy a body for less and get the same, nor can I buy the lenses for less so thats where the sense comes into it.
 
ChrisH said:
Get a MeiKe one, I have been using one on my 5D2 and it cost me just £79.

The Canon genuine one is just like their batteries, Overpriced :gag:





ps I use Clone batteries too, sod £54 for an Nimh battery when I can get one for £15
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:plusone: meike here, spot on. not had a prob from day 1. :thumbs:
 
I've had a Phottix grip on my 450D for the last 15 months, but over the last 3 months or so the rubber on the grip has started to wear and the adhesive has failed in certain places.

I've been very happy with it for the price and was tempted to get another, but went for the original Canon version in the end as I was wary of it happening again.

Good value for money? Certainly. Good quality? No, not really.
 
I had both a Canon grip and a 3rd party for my 2 20D's, I could not tell the difference, both worked exactly the same. I went 3rd party for my 5dm2, no point in wasting £150~
 
OKay, let me just point out that I am not trying to start an arguement or come accross as a troll.

From my point of view, Canon have spent a lot of time and money developing both cameras and the accessories that go with them and for that reason I will only use the genuine accessories. I could be wrong but I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that 3rd party grips are not manufactured under licence from Canon so are therefore reverse engineered form the original article. That in my book is theft.

As to batteries, the same applies, genuine all the way. Why would I want to risk my camera for the sake of £30?

Last year, I lost my in car charger for my Garmin so bought a 3rd party one from Tesco (closest place at the time) plugged it in and *pop* went the Garmin. Dead, no life at all so I had to buy a new sat nav. New sat nav was £200 so that made for an expensive lesson.

Now, before anyone starts about money being no object, it is. I'm not highly paid in the slightest and will quite happily buy 2nd hand off ebay when I can afford to do so.
 
I have an opteka grip and a canon grip for my 450D and 500D. the opteka came with the 450D when I bought it 2nd hand. It feels similar the rubber has worn and isn't of the same fit as the canon one with some slight gaps round the edge in places. The main problem is that with the opteka grip switched on I can't use the jog wheel on the camera, the shutter works but the wheel doesn't I am constantly switching the grip on and off which is a pain in the ass. I thought it may be the 450D so I swapped the grips and the problem/feature followed the grip.

I may buy another canon grip for the 450D when funds allow.
 
rgrebby said:
The difference is about £160
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Tell that to a friend of mine who used 3rd party goods and when his camera crashed and he sent it away he was told that the camera had registered non-original goods and they said that it was all his fault and it cost him a lot more than he bargained for. :shake:

Martin
 
I have a Meike grip for the d700 and has never been off the camera since I got it.
 
dentedshed said:
OKay, let me just point out that I am not trying to start an arguement or come accross as a troll.

From my point of view, Canon have spent a lot of time and money developing both cameras and the accessories that go with them and for that reason I will only use the genuine accessories. I could be wrong but I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that 3rd party grips are not manufactured under licence from Canon so are therefore reverse engineered form the original article. That in my book is theft.

As to batteries, the same applies, genuine all the way. Why would I want to risk my camera for the sake of £30?

Last year, I lost my in car charger for my Garmin so bought a 3rd party one from Tesco (closest place at the time) plugged it in and *pop* went the Garmin. Dead, no life at all so I had to buy a new sat nav. New sat nav was £200 so that made for an expensive lesson.

Now, before anyone starts about money being no object, it is. I'm not highly paid in the slightest and will quite happily buy 2nd hand off ebay when I can afford to do so.
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Hi Michael, I have to agree with you. I dont know about Nikon or Canon batteries, but I know that Sony batteries have a chip in them and when a Sony camera is sent back for repair the first thing they do is plug the camera in and check that is has been using original Sony batteries, if not then the warranty is null and void and thats from someone who works there.

Whenever this discussion arises a friend of mine always says to people, how would you feel if the local garage used 3rd party parts to fix your brakes and they failed and wiped out your wife and kids?. Would that be OK?

I know brakes and batteries are different but its the same principal.

Martin
 
it's called - greedy *******ism. they just don't like people using other companies stuff. your mates camera might had a different problem but they might have used the information in their advantage.
 
AFC said:
Whenever this discussion arises a friend of mine always says to people, how would you feel if the local garage used 3rd party parts to fix your brakes and they failed and wiped out your wife and kids?. Would that be OK?

I know brakes and batteries are different but its the same principal.

Martin
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The biggest problem with your friends arguement is that very few car manufacturers actually manufacture their own brake parts so by definition you will be using 3rd party parts, albeit, recommended by the manufacturer.

Oh, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

:)
 
Phottix gets my vote - had one on my 50D and now my 5D mark II - Solid bit of kit and having owned the original from canon on my 50D I will never go back..

This is what happened to the original :lol:

Click photo for info...

​
 
Strange how people complain about grips and batteries and to some extent I see your point but lets stop and think for a minute.

I have 3 Canon lenses and
a Tokina lens, many use Tamron and Sigma lenses. They are all third party.

Tamron and Tokina licence their mounts from Canon or Nikon so there should be no problems.

Sigma reverse engineer their mounts hence the reason their older lenses don't work without a rechip.

We use Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston......... memory cards.

I use a Sunpak flashgun.

They are all 3 party items used in conjunction with the camera body that's original manufacturers item.

Again as I said to some point I agree with original kit but when they overprice to such an extent that they are probably making 500% profit then it takes the biscuit.

Remember even China has tooling and manufacturing costs :D
 
ChrisH said:
They are all 3 party items used in conjunction with the camera body that's original manufacturers item.

Again as I said to some point I agree with original kit but when they overprice to such an extent that they are probably making 500% profit then it takes the biscuit.
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As you say, all 3rd party items but again, as you say, to be used in conjunction with rather than as a replacement to.

I'm in full agreement with the overpricing issue but a couple of searches on ebay will soon get you genuine items at a reasonable cost.
 
Grips are one thing where the 'copy' is as good as the orginal and will have no impact on quality. Lenses, cameras, filters etc... will make a difference to the picture.
 
I have a Meike grip on a 5D2 and had one on a 50D prior to that - excellent got mine from evilbay from this seller gone up a little now its £53.99 inc took about 5 days to deliver.
 
dentedshed said:
OKay, let me just point out that I am not trying to start an arguement or come accross as a troll.

From my point of view, Canon have spent a lot of time and money developing both cameras and the accessories that go with them and for that reason I will only use the genuine accessories. I could be wrong but I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that 3rd party grips are not manufactured under licence from Canon so are therefore reverse engineered form the original article. That in my book is theft.

As to batteries, the same applies, genuine all the way. Why would I want to risk my camera for the sake of £30?

Last year, I lost my in car charger for my Garmin so bought a 3rd party one from Tesco (closest place at the time) plugged it in and *pop* went the Garmin. Dead, no life at all so I had to buy a new sat nav. New sat nav was £200 so that made for an expensive lesson.

Now, before anyone starts about money being no object, it is. I'm not highly paid in the slightest and will quite happily buy 2nd hand off ebay when I can afford to do so.
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I see from your kit bag you have a Tokina lens.......... so you are quite happy to use a 3rd party lens but not a grip...........:thinking: reverse engineered .....theft ............
 
I think someone needs to tell dentedshed to "get a grip" :lol::lol::lol:

reverse engineered = theft! :bonk:
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
I see from your kit bag you have a Tokina lens.......... so you are quite happy to use a 3rd party lens but not a grip...........:thinking: reverse engineered .....theft ............
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Would you care to point out exactly which Canon lens that my Tokina is an exact copy of? Thought not.

As I have said before, unless Canon (or any other manufacturer) is issuing a licence to manufacture to the 3rd party makers of the likes of grips or batteries then it is theft. I severely doubt that a manufacturer would go to all the trouble of R&D only to licence someone else to make it to be sold on so cheaply.

It is theft, simples.
 
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