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- Name
- Dean
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Lasts longer at wedding and gives controls for portrait mode, my cameras are never without grips for those reasons
I can offer a different prespective as I have a battery grip for a much smaller, lighter breed of camera - the OM-D EM-5 (a micro four thirds camera if model numbers aren't your thing).
The camera body is quite small, meaning if you have large hands like me, you don't have your whole hand gripping the camera. This is fine for most lenses as they're pretty light (half the point of MFT). But when I plonk the 12-40/2.8 on, it is noticeably heavier and I can feel the camera wanting to "tip forwards" out of my hand. Adding the vertical non-battery half of the grip prevents this by giving me much more to grab on to. The camera is now thick enough to fill the hand so you're using your whole hand, not just your fingertips. It also adds a second shutter button further forwards, where your finger is now more likely to be.
The second half of the grip - the portrait bit - is ... well, the same comments apply as to the bigger cameras. Either you value the additional function vs bulk tradeoff or you don't.
Does anybody remember owning the the big old motor drive that you could buy for SLR
Does anybody remember owning the the big old motor drive that you could buy for SLR
Yep. I had MD-12s on my FM2s. The most famous camera sound of all time. (Look up Girls on Film by Duran Duran on YouTube to hear it ). Whenever you heard a camera sound dubbed onto a film, it would nearly always be a FM2/MD-12.
I also had a MD-4 on my F3.
the front element on some lenses (especially big 2.8's such as the 120-300) naturally want to tip forward because of the size/amount of glass up that end, even with your left hand/monopod supporting at the tripod mount.That sounds like you're trying to support the weight by holding onto the body only, which is always going to be awkward. Try supporting the weight using your left hand under the camera+lens, at the point of balance - it shouldn't tip in any direction if you do that! Let me put it this way - I've tried a GM1 with a Canon 300mm f/4 L lens, and it's perfectly balanced as long as you put your left hand in the right place
the front element on some lenses (especially big 2.8's such as the 120-300) naturally want to tip forward because of the size/amount of glass up that end, even with your left hand/monopod supporting at the tripod mount.
perhaps theyre designed with the larger 1D series in mind? i dont know.That sounds like incredibly poor design. How would you use such a lens on a gimbal?
the front element on some lenses (especially big 2.8's such as the 120-300) naturally want to tip forward because of the size/amount of glass up that end, even with your left hand/monopod supporting at the tripod mount.
Just get a long plate Gaz, makes balancing them easier.
OK, here's why I find a grip a pain in the..... fingers.
My camera has a nice little valley where my fingers go -
Unfortunately, I can't fit all 4 fingers into that valley - so my little finger rests on the bottomn of the camera -
This is quite comfortable and very stable.
Now, if the grip continued that valley I'd be a happy bunny. But it doesn't. Obviously the designers were thinking of small hands when they designed the grip.
Obviously all 4 fingers are supposed to fit in that original tiny little valley. But somebody like me, somebody with large hands, is totally screwed. There's now nowhere for the little finger to go. It sticks out like a posh person drinking tea. It gets in the way all the time. It's damned annoying!
So please explain to me, all those who use a grip because it fits better with your 'large' hands...
How can it fit better when shooting in landscape mode when the space designed for your fingers gets smaller?
Portrait work
exacterly.Can't answer for anyone else, but that "valley" continues on my grip.
Can't answer for anyone else, but that "valley" continues on my grip.
Hmmm, perhaps it's just the Canon grip for the 7D
And the 50D, and the 40D, and the 20D. (And the 3rd-party grip for th 60D).
i always thought they would be good to slap someone across the head with without dropping the camera as the grip on the camera aint too brill.
I wouldnt need a grip, my batteries last around 1,500 images and I have battery spares which takes seconds to change.[/quote]
They are, though, aren't they? They might give slightly better handling in portrait orientation, but not such better handling that it's worth spending any money on. Unless you have some sort of medical problem with operating an unmodified camera vertically, which, let's face it, isn't difficult in the least for most people with normal hands.
same here, i never let them run flat, change at about half way, check the photos when you get home, unless Im exposing in a always-changing sky and then i just read the histogram rather than examine the images. Need the extra power thats left in them, to copy the images over to the PC. Would not want to be waiting for the batteries to charge, I like to get them off-camera asap when I get home.I like grips but even with one fitted to my 5D the ergomonics of the 1 series are still better due to it being designed to be part of the body originally.
Ive recently sat next to someone who missed two ospreys diving whilst he was checking how sharp the previous ospreys dive was.
Ive never flattened 2 batteries but ive run both down to 30% in a day.
OK, here's why I find a grip a pain in the..... fingers.
My camera has a nice little valley where my fingers go -
Unfortunately, I can't fit all 4 fingers into that valley - so my little finger rests on the bottomn of the camera -
This is quite comfortable and very stable.
Now, if the grip continued that valley I'd be a happy bunny. But it doesn't. Obviously the designers were thinking of small hands when they designed the grip.
Obviously all 4 fingers are supposed to fit in that original tiny little valley. But somebody like me, somebody with large hands, is totally screwed. There's now nowhere for the little finger to go. It sticks out like a posh person drinking tea. It gets in the way all the time. It's damned annoying!
So please explain to me, all those who use a grip because it fits better with your 'large' hands...
How can it fit better when shooting in landscape mode when the space designed for your fingers gets smaller?
When you try to fit all of your 4 fingers in that "little valley" which digit are you using to depress the shutter button ?
I find it indispensable. Along with my personalised number plate, I wouldn't be seen without mine.
Being a simple hobbyist landscape photographer, the battery grip is probably the first thing I load into my camera bag after my 400mm f/2.8.
[/all the gear, no idea]