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(More customer reviews)I am a professional photographer. My passion lies in portrait work that focuses on the miracle of pregnancy, babies and young children. The challenge I face is minimizing the time I spend on the computer either fulfilling orders, balancing the books, keeping myself in the know and maintaining my equipment. I just want to be behind the camera or building a relationship with my clients.Unfortunately I cannot afford to neglect the other areas of the business.
Every serious photographer knows that the best way to maximize time infront of clients, and behind the lens, is developing efficiencies in the everyday tasks. This may take the form of photo processing works flows, creating and using Photoshop actions, using RSS readers to catch all the latest news or creating for yourself a weekly maintenance agenda. This is where the Polaroid Battery Grip (PBG from now on) came in for me.
Just like me, I am sure a lot of photographers would love to be able to just keep shooting and not have to worry about the camera battery running out. I as well cover weddings, which are great fun but very long and require a lot of shots. At the end of the shoot, late at night, I am honestly more inclined to back up the photos before I go to bed than recharge my battery. If I have a full day ahead of me this lapse may cause me to scramble the next morning to get the battery charged. This is never a good way to arrive to your client's for their session. Once in the past, and it only took one time, I did not have my battery fully charged and it gave out midway through a shoot. Lucky it was a performance rehearsal that was going to be repeated the next day. With the PBG I can only have to standard Canon batteries in the unit, doubling my shoot time, but also replace these with standard AA batteries. I now have 4 standard Canon batteries and a pack of Duracell or Energizer AA batteries with me. I can go weeks on client or personal projectd and never have to worry a out battery power. And when I do need to deal with it I now set myself up, in one sitting, for another few weeks instead of just a few days.
A few specifics now on the PBG. It is easy to install on your camera. This will involve removing you camera's battery compartment door to fit the PBG in place. I own the Canon 40D and I was very pleased go find that the PBG had a slot where I could keep the removed battery compartment door. Having owned a Canon branded battery grip before I was very pleased with this feature. You must make sure it is snuggly fitted for it to work properly. There was s brief period where I thought I had it on snug and the PBG was not working propery. This was very frustrating and I almost returned it. After taking it off my camera and trying it again it has since then worked like a dream. It feels just as durable and sturdy as the Canon branded battery grip I had before which was very reassuring. When installing the batteries though you get two trays for either a Canon style battery or for AA batteries. You cannot mix and match these. One thing I would like to see changed is the orientation of the trays for when you slide them into the battery grip. They are upside down. I keep feeling like the batteries are going to fall out. The Canon branded battery grip got this feature right. The PBG has a switch on the side to tell the grip whether you want to use the control, such as shutter release, found on the unit for vertical shots. If you forget to switch it on when you are taking vertical shots it is a simple matter of quickly doing so when you realize it. No big deal. I have sometimes forgotten to turn it off when I am done and have not yet experienced and issue with this oversights. I personally prefer it to ways be ready for when I need it, but I am not sure if this impacts battery life.
Last, and definitely not least, is the remote control that comes with it. I plan to use this for my long exposure photography, a personal passion of mine, but have so far used it for family portraits. As anyone can tell you, no matter how good you are in anything, family will always be your harshest critic. Having the remote has cut down tremendously on my need to adjust and tweak behind the camera and then run to be included in the shot.
All in all the Polaroid Battery Grip is a solid offering, comparable to the Canon branded offering and a delight to work with.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Polaroid Wireless Performance Battery Grip For Canon Eos 50D, 40D, 30D, 20D Digital Slr Cameras - Remote Shutter Release Included
More than simply giving you the ability to shoot twice as many pictures before needing to recharge or replace your batteries, Polaroid Performance Grips are ergonomicallydesigned to make shooting vertically (portrait mode) as comfortable and convenient as shooting horizontally (landscape mode). This is because they will seamlessly interface with your camera to provide full control of all key features from shutter release to scene select (depending on camera model). Combine that with cutting edge features like IR remotes and intervalometers-perfect for taking your HD-ready SLR-and creativity, to the next level as you explore the world of stop action and time lapse videography, and it's easy to see why performance minded photographers cant wait to get their hands on Polaroid Performance Grips!
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