This morning I received a package in the mail that I’ve been waiting for. The aftermarket battery grip for my Canon 5D Mark III made by Meike. It would be nice to always buy the OEM accessories for your camera but when it’s around $499, I’d have to say no thanks. In most cases the differences are only aesthetics, sometimes even psychological and of course build quality. I’m not sure why they can’t use the same rubber grip material on these aftermarket grips. I’m sure it’s not trademarked by Canon.
;
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;”] F [/dropcap]irst Impressions: Meike don’t care much about packaging, the grip comes in a bubble wrap. That’s it. The box was a little worse for wear but the content was undamaged luckily. When you first take the grip out of the box, you can tell straight away that it’s not made out of the same quality plastic as the OEM grip. The rubber grip on it is different to the one that is on the 5D Mark III, the one on the 5D Mark III body is a lot more coarse and the one of the grip is made out a finer pattern. The buttons feels solid and the dials functions as they should. The battery compartment latch is made out of plastic, which is a little flimsy but I’m sure it will be fine. The directional joystick works well but doesn’t feel as solid as the one on the body.
When I was searching for an aftermarket battery grip, I had a choice between the Pixel Vertax, the Phottix and the Meike. Users have reported qc issues and battery drain issues with the Meike Version I and Pixel Vertax stopped working for some only after a few weeks. As reported by users on POTN, the version II by Meike was an improvement and priced well so I decided to take the plunge on this one. Shipped via Hong Kong, it arrived within a week. For free shipping, that’s quite impressive.
;
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;”] O[/dropcap]verall: I’m happy with this grip, it needs a lot more testing to see how durable it is and how the batteries perform on it so I’ll update this thread when I’ve used it a bit more.
;
;
[facebook]
