Cat Nap

I took delivery of my ‘battery grip’ for the Canon 5D today.  I’ve had a quick play with it – as you can see the cats were being their usual helpful selves and possed for a few shots while I tried it out.

I think the jury is definately out on the battry grip.  My initial reaction to it is that I don’t like the extra weight it adds to the camera.  I feel as though I’ve had a work out and I’d only taken a dozen or so shots with it. (Yeah, yeah, I know… “Wimp!”)

I like the grip for taking vertical shots it feels much more sturdy.  A recent analysis of my photo database tells me that I actually take more vertical shots than horizontal ones, so this was the main reason for getting the grip.  But when using the grip for vertical shots I can’t use the little ‘joystick’ for selecting the focus point.  The little joystick I consider to be a really cool feature and a very natural and quick way to select a focus point.  That will be missed.

The fact that the grip makes the camera look much more ‘professional’ is both a blessing and a curse.  When doing commissions such as portraits or weddings having something that looks as professsional a possible is essential.  For travel photography work however this could be a problem – when traveling in the Middle East or other Arab countries it is essential to look like a tourist and not look like a pro.  (I suppose I could always invest in the odd hawiian shirt).

An additional 5cm (2in) to the bottom of the camera effectively raises the tripod height by that amount.  Not a big deal with my main tripod as is goes higher than I can look anyhow.  But with my travel tripod which I use abroad an extra two inches would be a real help.

I think I need to play with it a bit more to reach a final conclusion.