Customer Rating: 
Summary: Got this to hold vertical shots. Good for that.
Comment: Heavy. More to grip. Good with my 300mm lens. If you want one, you've got to pay to play. Don't get the Hong Kong junk. You will regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great addition to my 40D
Comment: For me the BG-E2N is a must have. As a Wedding & Events Photographer I use the added power and the flexibilty of the vertical shutter release as I make alot of vertical shots. I find it more comfortable and controlable using the battery grip. Feels good in my hands and it looks good too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Why it's NOT a must have
Comment: Many say this is a must have, and the reasons have been repeated literally a million times. But I returned the grip for a refund. Why? And why is it not a must have?
- Adding the grip makes your camera look and feel like a 1D Mark III. As a result, you have lost the advantage of using a smaller SLR, and for street and other types of candid shooting the smaller and less noticeable, the better.
- If you are the type of photographer who uses tripods almost as often as you do cameras, adding the grip means you'll want to mount your quick release plate on the grip. By common sense this tends to destabilize your tripod setup. If you use live-view mode on a windy night, you can easily observe how much more your camera wobbles in the wind if you mount your camera with this grip on top of your tripod head. If you don't want that result you will have to remove your grip every time you use your tripod.
- The benefit of using AA batteries with the grip virtually does not exist if you are truly a pro (meaning you always have backups, including a spare battery). If I remember correctly, the much heavier AA batteries in the magazine only have about 20% of the "endurance" of the Canon battery.
- The grip allows you to shoot with up to 2 batteries for up to 2000+ shots. If you are concerned with the lost photo opportunities when you shoot without the grip, check this out: it takes only ~10 seconds to swap a battery. The grip will not make your battery or batteries last longer.
- In your camera bag, the extra space needed to accommodate your camera with this grip attached is roughly enough to hold a Canon 580 EX II flash gun. Well, your bag may be differently arranged. At least in my case, only if without the grip was I able to carry 580 EX II.
- Obviously if you legally own this grip your pocket most likely has been about $170 lighter. What else could you have purchased?
Roughly speaking, the grip can be a really nice add-on if you hand hold your camera to shoot in studio or otherwise controlled settings. When it is a nice have, it is nice even if you don't shoot vertically at all. But it is at most just a nice have, not a must have. That's because you can always live without it (no matter how big your hand may be, your hand is nevertheless only a human hand, right? So it simply can't be that big!).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for balance and vertical shots
Comment: Enough positives being mentioned already. I am all for it.
Only negative I can think of is the wheel that turns the screw that connects to the camera. This wheel feels cheap, wobbling quite a bit more than it should. But once tightened, the grip is very secure and firm without any shake or crack as some others mentioned. My Canon grip for 350D Rebel XT is better, believe it or not. The wheel doesn't wobble, the whole thing is tight, and finish feels more solid.
And one wish - Canon will remove the power switch on the grip and let the camera switch drive both the camera and the grip. Hope this is not too hard for Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing Overall
Comment: PROS: Extra long battery life, nice for vertical shooting, gives you a bigger grip on the camera. This unit DOES include the plastic AA battery tray so that you can run your camera off of 6 AA batteries. No need to purchase it separately.
CONS: My first one broke. From day one, it always attached a bit loosely. Then the fastener wheel got jammed one day and I was BARELY able to get it off the camera, so I exchanged it for another one.
Now I'm on my 2nd unit and the fastener wheel spins a little loose when tightened all the way, just like like it did on the first unit I sent back. HOPEFULLY it won't jam up again. It attaches to the 40D more solidly than my first one, but it doesn't feel nearly as tight at my BG-E3 did when I used to own the XTi/400D.
My second unit also holds the left battery so loosely that the white plastic tab BARELY locks the battery in place and will allow the battery to slide out and fall if tilted downward with the battery door open. Very dissapointing, and I might be sending it back to C*non for warranty repair.
Given the high price, I think it's disappointing that the grip isn't made with more solid metal parts instead of plastic. Apparently the gear inside the unit is made with plastic teeth! It feels almost like a cheap toy in my opinion. It just feels flimsy overall. Another problem I've had is sometimes the vertical shutter button won't work unless I hold it down for 1-2 seconds. I press the shutter button firmly and simply nothing happens. Other times it works fine.
Summary: Got this to hold vertical shots. Good for that.
Comment: Heavy. More to grip. Good with my 300mm lens. If you want one, you've got to pay to play. Don't get the Hong Kong junk. You will regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great addition to my 40D
Comment: For me the BG-E2N is a must have. As a Wedding & Events Photographer I use the added power and the flexibilty of the vertical shutter release as I make alot of vertical shots. I find it more comfortable and controlable using the battery grip. Feels good in my hands and it looks good too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Why it's NOT a must have
Comment: Many say this is a must have, and the reasons have been repeated literally a million times. But I returned the grip for a refund. Why? And why is it not a must have?
- Adding the grip makes your camera look and feel like a 1D Mark III. As a result, you have lost the advantage of using a smaller SLR, and for street and other types of candid shooting the smaller and less noticeable, the better.
- If you are the type of photographer who uses tripods almost as often as you do cameras, adding the grip means you'll want to mount your quick release plate on the grip. By common sense this tends to destabilize your tripod setup. If you use live-view mode on a windy night, you can easily observe how much more your camera wobbles in the wind if you mount your camera with this grip on top of your tripod head. If you don't want that result you will have to remove your grip every time you use your tripod.
- The benefit of using AA batteries with the grip virtually does not exist if you are truly a pro (meaning you always have backups, including a spare battery). If I remember correctly, the much heavier AA batteries in the magazine only have about 20% of the "endurance" of the Canon battery.
- The grip allows you to shoot with up to 2 batteries for up to 2000+ shots. If you are concerned with the lost photo opportunities when you shoot without the grip, check this out: it takes only ~10 seconds to swap a battery. The grip will not make your battery or batteries last longer.
- In your camera bag, the extra space needed to accommodate your camera with this grip attached is roughly enough to hold a Canon 580 EX II flash gun. Well, your bag may be differently arranged. At least in my case, only if without the grip was I able to carry 580 EX II.
- Obviously if you legally own this grip your pocket most likely has been about $170 lighter. What else could you have purchased?
Roughly speaking, the grip can be a really nice add-on if you hand hold your camera to shoot in studio or otherwise controlled settings. When it is a nice have, it is nice even if you don't shoot vertically at all. But it is at most just a nice have, not a must have. That's because you can always live without it (no matter how big your hand may be, your hand is nevertheless only a human hand, right? So it simply can't be that big!).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for balance and vertical shots
Comment: Enough positives being mentioned already. I am all for it.
Only negative I can think of is the wheel that turns the screw that connects to the camera. This wheel feels cheap, wobbling quite a bit more than it should. But once tightened, the grip is very secure and firm without any shake or crack as some others mentioned. My Canon grip for 350D Rebel XT is better, believe it or not. The wheel doesn't wobble, the whole thing is tight, and finish feels more solid.
And one wish - Canon will remove the power switch on the grip and let the camera switch drive both the camera and the grip. Hope this is not too hard for Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing Overall
Comment: PROS: Extra long battery life, nice for vertical shooting, gives you a bigger grip on the camera. This unit DOES include the plastic AA battery tray so that you can run your camera off of 6 AA batteries. No need to purchase it separately.
CONS: My first one broke. From day one, it always attached a bit loosely. Then the fastener wheel got jammed one day and I was BARELY able to get it off the camera, so I exchanged it for another one.
Now I'm on my 2nd unit and the fastener wheel spins a little loose when tightened all the way, just like like it did on the first unit I sent back. HOPEFULLY it won't jam up again. It attaches to the 40D more solidly than my first one, but it doesn't feel nearly as tight at my BG-E3 did when I used to own the XTi/400D.
My second unit also holds the left battery so loosely that the white plastic tab BARELY locks the battery in place and will allow the battery to slide out and fall if tilted downward with the battery door open. Very dissapointing, and I might be sending it back to C*non for warranty repair.
Given the high price, I think it's disappointing that the grip isn't made with more solid metal parts instead of plastic. Apparently the gear inside the unit is made with plastic teeth! It feels almost like a cheap toy in my opinion. It just feels flimsy overall. Another problem I've had is sometimes the vertical shutter button won't work unless I hold it down for 1-2 seconds. I press the shutter button firmly and simply nothing happens. Other times it works fine.
Canon BG-E2N Battery Grip for Canon 20D, 30D, 40D & 50D Digital SLR Cameras Reviews: Page 2 of 14
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