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After reading many reviews I decided to purchase the Zeikos grip but B&H discontinued it so I decided to go with the new Vello grip instead.

I think I might have made a mistake. The grip seems to drain power from my batteries VERY fast. I had the grip on camera with fully charged batteries and they were completely dead in a matter of days just sitting in my bag. I then charged the batteries (genuine Canon) to 100% and turned the camera off. I turned it on every hour or so and took a picture of the battery status menu. In 4 hours the battery power has gone down to 88% with power off and without taking a single picture.

What is going on? Is this thing defective or is there some setting I am missing?

I removed the grip and performed a similar test and the battery power has not gone down at all in 4 hours. The battery normally lasts a very long time so I was quite surprised to loose all the juice in a few days.

Unless there is a setting I can tweak I will return this grip and get a genuine Canon. Do people out there have any similar complaints about the Canon unit?

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  • I have the same problem with mine, but I think it's the LCD on the back that causes problems. Why when it has it's own lil battery for that I don't know, but it still draws from the main :/
    – Dreamager
    Mar 4 '12 at 11:13
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I haven't used it, but I know that battery drain with aftermarket grips is a common complaint on photography forums. And people with genuine Canon and Nikon units always reply that they have no such issues.

I would say it's a defect with that particular unit. You could try a 2nd Vello grip and you may find it works well. It shouldn't drain the batteries in a matter of days with everything switched off.

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  • oh no. thanks. no more aftermarket anything for me.
    – Jakub Sisak GeoGraphics
    Mar 4 '12 at 3:36
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    Some aftermarket stuff is good, including (probably) camera grips. I think the quality control is an issue. If you swap for another one, it may be fine. B&H wouldn't stock it for long if they got nothing but returns.
    – MikeW ♦
    Mar 4 '12 at 4:13
  • I have a different 3rd party grip (can't remember the make), and I have a similar problem. I take the batteries out when I'm not using the camera. :-(
    – AJ Finch
    Mar 6 '12 at 14:23
  • Thanks guys. I will just return it and get the Canon. Besides, this grip stinks so bad of rubber and plastic I can smell my camera bag from across the room.
    – Jakub Sisak GeoGraphics
    Mar 6 '12 at 15:59

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