When I first purchased my Canon 7D, I quickly learned my existing battery grip for the 50D was not compatible with the 7D. After selling my Canon 50D, I decided to purchase a battery grip for the 7D. Initially, I was just going to order another Canon battery grip but then I discovered the Zeikos battery grip listed on Amazon. The Zeikos to my surprise had a ton of positive reviews and was half the cost. I decided the Zeikos cost savings was worth taking a chance so I made the plunge and ordered one. To my delight, the Zeikos is a very high quality alternative as many of the reviews on Amazon stated. Here are some of the highlights:
- It has a very nice rubber grip not just a textured part of the plastic.
- There is a tripod mount on the bottom so you can use tripod with the grip.
- Attaching the grip to the camera is easy after I figured out the little spring clip to detach the battery cover door.
- The grip has a nice location to store the stock battery cover so you wont loose it or have it available in the field incase you need to take off the battery grip.
- It ships with a AA magazine which takes 6 AA batteries. It’s a nice bonus but I prefer to use two lithiums. I also always prefer to use Canon brand batteries because you loose battery percentage remaining monitoring when using generic batteries in the 7D. The AA magazine is actually exactly the same as the BGM-E2 that came with my 50D battery grip; however, the Canon magazine has gold connections vs cheaper silver connections with the Zeikos AA magazine.
- There’s an on or off switch on the grip. This is handy to prevent accidentally pressing buttons when not in use.
- The shutter button on the grip is one of the primary reasons to consider purchasing a battery grip. It makes taking vertical shots much easier.
Overall, the Zeikos is an excellent high quality battery grip that I would recommend to any hobbyist looking for a lower cost alternative to the more expensive Canon brand.
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