Pimp my EOS 5D Mark II – part 1

The first round of pimping my 5D Mark II involves the attachment of a dedicated battery grip and a hand strap. The battery grip that fits the 5D Mark II is the BG-E6, designed to hold two rechargable batteries (Canon LP-E6) or a slide-in battery pack containing six penlight batteries. It’s unlikely I’ll use the penlight option too often, but that may be a good emergency option to keep in my camera bag.

The BG-E6 matches the camera body quite nicely and duplicates some controls for easier portrait shooting. A shutter release button, AE lock, AF on, and a Main Dial control wheel are within easy reach. The battery pack is inserted into the existing battery bay at the bottom of the camera and attached to the body using the tripod mount.

The battery needs to be removed and the bay door unhinged. A nice touch is a holder in the battery grip to store the battery bay door whilst the battery grip is attached – losing that would not be a good experience. With the BG-E6 attached, the camera is certainly a lot larger and heavier. The grip provides a tripod mount.

The advantage of this arrangement is the extra juice provided by the batteries – the information from the battery grip is displayed in the camera menu. Installation of the latest firmware for the 5D Mark II is recommended, as earlier firmware releases could not accurately indicate battery status information. The camera can be run with either one or two batteries in the battery grip and different charge levels are in order. If AA‘s are inserted, no charge information or remaining runtime can be displayed, as the batteries are incapable of providing that information to the camera. As mentioned, that’s probably just an extreme emergency case – I doubt the camera will run very long on 6 AA‘s…

One last note on the battery grip: it contains its own power switch. That needs to be turned on to make sure the controls on the grip work. When used in landscape shooting, the power switch can be turned off to conserve some battery power.

With the battery grip attached, the next component is the Canon E1 hand strap. Instructions that show how to attach the hand strap are not included in the package. That’s odd, because the hand strap is by no means an intuitive accessory to attach.

There is one prerequisite: the Canon E1 hand strap is designed to be fitted only to certain cameras, specifically those featuring a battery pack or extended base. The EOS 1DS is an obvious example, but the EOS 5D Mark II with battery pack attached is also hand strap-capable. The package for the E1 is a plastic bag with a cardboard tag containing the hand strap hardware. No instructions.

I eventually found the instructions in the manual for the EOS 1DS, on page 24. I downloaded the manual from Canon‘s US website, always an excellent source of Canon manuals and software. For your reference, I’ve posted it here. Click to enlarge.

It looks more complicated than it actually is. First off, remove the existing neck strap attached to the camera and fit the hand strap as indicated in steps 1 through 5. Finally, connect the neck strap to the metal tab as indicated in step 6. After making sure that everything is tight and comfortable and won’t slip, you’re ready to go. I find the hand strap makes the holding of the camera much more comfortable and secure, especially when a heavier lens is attached. Some adjustment is inevitable after the initial fastening of the accessory to the camera, but once fitted it’s ready for use.

With round one of the pimping completed, the next set of accessories have arrived. Those won’t be permanent, but will radically change the look of the DSLR…