VELLO BG-C9 Battery Grip for Canon 5D Mark III

Buyer beware! On the side of this grip there is a latch that you have to turn to secure the grip. It flips up to stay in place. Mine has never stayed up. It was annoying but I thought no big deal. Well apparently, it is a HUGE deal. Someone else here posted this "Everything is perfect except for the release tab for the battery keeps flipping open which causes the camera to shut off. A small piece of black electrical tape keeps it in place and discreet". It causes the camera to SHUT OFF! Do you know what that means when the camera is in the middle of writing an image to the card???? It corrupts the entire card. I lost half of a wedding due to this. Now I am using the electrical tape trick but it is a pain in the ass and scary as hell. I do not trust it. I'm just waiting for my Canon grip to come in. Look it up, lots of people have had this problem or they experience error codes with this grip on.

This battery grip works just like the canon version at a fraction of the cost. I’m honestly not sure why anyone would buy the canon version of a third party option. Third party options are getting better and better everyday. Lenses as well. The name brand camera companies will ha e to add more features to their accessories soon because these third party options are becoming real competition. I think anyone who buys this will be happy with their purchase and will not even think twice about the fact that it isn’t a name brand battery grip.

I'm a career photojournalist and bought two of the Vello BG-C9 battery grips for my Canon 5D III bodies. I'm impressed with the build quality and the exterior finish matches the camera's perfectly. The Vello fits flush against the 5D III with no annoying gap or wiggle, and you stash the camera's battery door safely inside the grip if you want to switch back.I recommend this grip to any serious photographer. Reminiscent of the old-style motor drives, this grip has a vertical shutter release button (plus other controls) that let you securely handle the 5D Mark III even with a big 70-200 f/2.8 or 300 f/2.8 attached. It also helps counterbalance the camera when using a speedlight.The Vello BG-C9 grip adds a second LP-E6 battery slot and gives you the option of shooting with six AA batteries in an emergency, guaranteeing power even on all-day assignments. The 5D MK III battery info display lets you track individual charges, health and shutter counts on both LP-E6 batteries.DOWNSIDES:This sizable grip makes the 5D III quite a bit heavier and bulkier, and I spoke to an aerial photographer who wasn't happy with the extra weight. It helps if you have big hands. Plus I wish Vello had placed a rubber gasket where the battery drawer slides into the grip. But I recently shot an assignment in the blowing rain where I got soggy as a flounder. Although one of my cameras quit twice, the battery grip wasn't a factor; the water leaked into the camera though the lens and top panel.All in all, at the price, this is a solid five star product. If I ever have an issue, I will update this review immediately.------------UPDATE. O.K., I promised to update if any problems arose. After a year of hard service, one of my Vello BG-C9 grips developed a weird problem. It still powers the camera, but the camera's LCD display does not show?! If I use the other grip or just power it with the standard camera battery slot, the LCD shows up fine. Just ordered a replacement Canon OM grip, darn it.

On a scale of 1/10 I would say the build quality is a 7. It's good enough that I wouldn't want to pay triple the money for the Canon official battery grip, but it's not equally well built. Once I started using grip with my 5D Mark III I started having some occasional Err codes -- during high speed bracketing (7 brackets) I would occasionally get the Err 01. Now normally this is related to lens contacts or camera body contacts needing cleaning. With a brand new lens the same error randomly occurred (never during single or continuous shooting mode, just in bracketing with a starting shutter speed of 1/200th -- various apertures). Thinking it was the body I took it to the Canon service center. They removed the grip and put the factory door back on and we tried for 30 minutes to replicate the error -- guess what? It never had the error again. It's been a month since then and I've never encountered the Err01. However, once I put the grip back on and start high speed bracketing it returns. Strange anomaly, but by guess is that the contacts on the grip get dislodged during high speed bracketing.

I just received, unpacked, checked out and attached the Vello Battery Grip for my recently purchased Canon EOS 5d MK III camera. This grip has three components: a Grip body closely resembling the Canon OEM version, a battery tray for AA Batteries, a dual EP-6 tray, and a bag to hold whichever tray is not being used.The Battery Grip (BG-C9) by Vello imitates and perhaps improves upon the BG-E11 by Canon at a more reasonable price (a 60% savings in OEM pricing!). You also might want to be aware that the Canon model is no longer available on their web site. I find Vello's build quality to be excellent, the compatibility with the 5d camera body very good, the fit of battery modules in the removable tray nice. The 'feel' of the BG-C9 comparing the 'grippiness' of the Canon camera a dead-on match.The only complaint I might have is how the slide-in batteries load & fit in the Vello's tray (battery holder). Once you get the feel of it, it works fine, but if in a hurry, you don't insert the batteries fully into the slide tray, they simply will not fit into the grip. I have not yet put 6 AA's in the separately supplied auxiliary battery tray, but I can tell you from previous Canon OEM battery grips (BG-3N) the quality of those are very poor in the Canon product and fell apart quickly. I only used them once. I'm encouraged by the design, materials of this grip and possible improvements to the original design.I'm taking off 1 star because of the above (if I could do a half, I would).

Product ( Vello BG-C9 Battery Grip for Canon 5D MKlll) arrived b e f o r e due date, well packaged and with no damage. Product was installed right away and have been using it with no problems at all so far.

I really like the feel of this grip. While slightly bulkier than the Canon version, it fits well into the hand and all the controls are readily accessible. Time will tell how durable it is, but right now I am definitely impressed. I would definitely recommend this to my friends.

Its good def better than the neewer , one thing i noticed is that if you lock ur camera ( hold button to lock the exposure ) the shutter button the grip isnt affected

Hands down, this grip is identical to the Canon grip, it performs just as well, if not better and it's half the price!

I've been using it since I purchased my 5d mark iii. It never let me down and I enjoy the super long battery life.