For those professionals on a tight budget, or those just seeking a reasonably priced back up body, the battery grip offers a cost-effective solution to getting that pro-style DSLR body look without risking filing for bankruptcy.
In the real world of there are potential customers who are photographic experts, they know all there is to know about photographic equipment. It must say Canon or Nikon on the body and it must be big, the bigger the better really impresses experts.
Therefore, if you have a top of the line non-Canikon DSLR then the optional battery grip for your Sony, Pentax or Olympus will give you that pro-style silhouette to impress the experts. Even if you have one of Canikon’s excellent mid range beauties such as the D700 from Nikon, or Canon’s 5D, then a battery grip gives the look of their more expensive siblings at a more bank manger friendly price.
Ergonomics
Surprisingly the modern rush to make everything smaller may have gone too far. One of the benefits many battery grip users report is an improvement in the ability to hold the camera by making it bigger. The battery grip makes the camera taller, with the end of the grip fitting snugly into the palm of the hand.
Not only does this help photographers hold the camera steadier while taking the picture, the palm helps support the camera while the fingers to operate the adjustment wheels and buttons grouped on that side of the camera. The other hand holds the lens and operates the zoom and manual focus rings.
In portrait or vertical mode, the grip offers a number of duplicate controls on what becomes the top right corner of the camera. These make holding the camera much easier rather than the unnatural contortion required when using the camera for vertical picture orientation to reach the normal controls.
Extra Battery
Of course, one of the main advantages is the extra battery capacity provided by having two in the augmented body. This is more than the convenience of knowing the location of the spare battery. Most camera systems offer automatic or rapid battery change over when the working one is exhausted. This is important in any form of action photography or photojournalism where a missed opportunity is gone forever.
On the Nikon D300 if you use their higher capacity EN-EL4 or EN-EL4A battery with the optional BL-3 Battery Chamber Cover then the maximum frame rate rises to 8 frames per second, rather than the standard 6 frames per second for the D300.
Storage Compartment
The Pentax D-BG2 Battery Grip for their K20D cameras has storage space for a spare memory card and a remote control.
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