Anyone else using or considering a third-party battery grip for Canon RP or R8?

[Somersetman]

I just took delivery of the somewhat cheap & cheerful offering from Hersmay (and other names you've never heard of) - the "Vertical Power Battery Grip for Canon EOS R8".

First impressions:

• It has tool-less fitting, i.e. it attaches into the tripod screw hole on the bottom of the camera.
• It has a second shutter button; two standard battery compartments; internal storage for the original battery comparment door; a tripod screw hole on the bottom.
• It isn't really a Canon-level quality item... but then it's £54.99 from Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GC86HL6), and I suspect that Canon would charge the best part of £300 is they made one!!
• Functionally, it's a pain that you can't access the camera's SD card slot without taking the grip off and the little link cable that enables the second shutter button is pretty horrible (but not something I'd ever use). Also, the batteries don't exactly leap out when you open the battery retaining catches.
• Neverthelss it should improve the handling of the camera with big lenses, e.g. 70-200 f/2.8L, and increase the interval between changing batteries.

Questions I hope to answer (and if anyone already has the answers, please yell!):

1. How do I know that both batteries in the grip are recognised? My R8 only reports on the state of one battery... but to be honest I wouldn't really expect it to report on two given that there is no official battery grip for this camera. The proof will be in the number of shots I can take before the batteries are exhausted I guess!

2. What's the on/off switch on the battery grip for? One review on Amazon suggests that the batteries will discharge if the switch is left on, but I don't believe this, as the grip powers the camera whether this switch is on or off! I'm guessing it's only to enable/disable the second shutter button. The Chinese-English instructions shed little light, offering such gems as: "Low operating a vertical racquet handle switch to <ON> position so that the battery pack and handle the shutter function the same as the corresponding part of the camera functions."

Hopefully anyone else considering going down this route might find these observations useful.

Greg

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[TimHughes]

@Somersetman I don't have RP or R8. I've had the battery grip for the R and currently for the R5. I'm not sure how useful this is, but to answer your questions for the R5:
1. "Battery info" is in the spanner settings menu and it shows the status of both batteries in the grip
2. The on/off switch on the battery simply activates or deactivates the buttons and dials on the battery grip.

Regarding the on/off switch on the battery grip, I remember that leaving that the battery drained on occasion with 5DM3 and 5DM4 but I've not had that issue with the R models. That said, for the 5DM3 and 5DM4 I used third party battery grips and for the R and R5 I'm using Canon battery grips.

Hope this helps