Day 724 of 365 More.
Crap…
So I was actually having a decent day. Work was long and annoying, but productive. Work can be like that. But then once I got home, I had a nice dinner with Steph, a pretty good workout and got some new photos of Virginia editted (including one of my favorite shots in a long, long time.
After that I was planing on maybe getting some kind of creative SP in and then working on Hellcats. So I grabbed my camera and the battery was dead. No problem, I go to switch with the battery in the charger and —
CRAP!
Where the fuck did my other battery go? I know I had it when I did the photoshoot the other day, but I never ended up using it. And now I have no idea where I put it. I mean, the normal battery will be charged by tomorrow morning, so it’s not a big deal for day-to-day use, but I totally can’t get by on one battery at a time during a shoot.
*sigh* I really need to buy a grip.
Get a grip, Mav [shaking him]!! You’ve totally frickin’ lost it!
Yikes, that sucks! I hope it’s on the floor of the car or something.
Adorama Camera sells Canon BP-511 knock-offs, $20 each instead of $50. I’ve been very happy with mine — I bought a second real Canon battery to pair with the one that came with the 20D, then a second set of Adorama batteries when I got the 20D/30D grip. They have performed just as well as the Canon batteries for the past 3 years.
That sucks. Just as bad as not having the batteries is not remembering! How frustrating! It’ll turn up while you’re frantically searching for the next thing you misplace… always happens to me that way.
@phlewght: I think the battery was a knockoff. What I’m trying to decide is do I trust the knockoff grips or not. Do you have the official canon branded one?
@lrayholly: yeah, I actually found two other things I had given up looking for while I was looking for the battery last night. Unfortunately I NEED an extra battery and don’t want to just wait for it to turn up.
The batteries you can get on e-bay work fine too. I got some and they have been working fine, they’re only around 7 or 8 bucks. I feel you on the grip, but I would save up and get the Canon brand grip though!
I started running out of battery power during a shoot yesterday too – thankfully I made it thru. Would have been kind of annoying/embarrassing tho.
Also, had a dream that I bummed a cigarette from you. I haven’t smoked in 11 years! You’re being a bad influence on my in my dreams.
Yes, a Canon grip — I didn’t want to take a chance on an off-brand. Actually, I’m not sure there was an off-brand grip yet when I bought my 20D.
@thehalfshow.com: hmmm… I haven’t tried that yet. In fact, I’ve never ordered anything from ebay ever. Will have to keep it in mind.
@365bunnies: luckily I found the battery this morning. Yay! It really sucks to run out in the middle.
@phlewght: the one I’m thinking of buying has both good and bad reviews. And someone commented that the issues with the bad review they had with the Canon branded one as well, so I’m thinking for $80 I’ll give it a try. if nothing else, it’s worth it for the extra batteries.
Cool, go for it. There are very few 3-star and lower reviews, and these third-party companies have had plenty of time to build a good product by now.
Funny, I was about to warn you to be sure the batteries shown match your camera, because the contacts look different than mine. (I can’t imagine a 3rd-party company making a grip that uses different batteries than the body, but….) Then I saw that the 20-30-40D Canons use a different battery than the XT bodies.
Weird. My original Digital Rebel used the BP-511 or 512 batteries, same as the 20D I replaced it with. The NB-2LH battery must be smaller — I think the 350D (XT) body was smaller than the 300D.
@phlewght: yeah, my old Camera, the Canon G3 uses the same batteries as you. As does my camcorder. But my dSLR, the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, uses the newer batteries. They are in fact smaller, as you guessed.
I ordered it yesterday. Might get it tomorrow, might not get it til next week.
For my XTi I had an Opteka brand grip – worked great, still does. For my XSi, I use a Canon – mainly because when I bought it there WAS no after market brand.
@Free2bJ.C.♡Photos: cool. I’m glad about that. It gives me hope. By the way, how do you like the XSi? It seems nice in some respects but on the other hand, I’m pretty irritated by the switch to SD.
With the 12MP XSi out, I know that a 12MP 50D is coming soon, so I don’t mind having no money for a 40D right now. BUT, I hope they don’t make that body SD-only as well — I have a lot of Sandisk Extreme III 2GB CF cards….
I don’t like that it uses SD – especially since I have a ton of CF for my XTi; however, I am thrilled with the processor – the photos are so much crisper, and the noise is greatly reduced even at higher ISO.
@phlewght: Canon seems to be under this delusion that they can make "regular people" buy DSLRs by switching to SD. As though regular people wanted to waste the kinda money we waste on lenses. I mean, is anyone who really cares about having an SLR really excited about the "live preview" window on the back?
@Free2bJ.C.♡Photos: yeah, that’s a big part fo my being torn on it.
They’ll catch some regular people, most of whom won’t care to go beyond the kit lens. And if they do it’ll be a broader-range zoom which someone else convinces them to get.
I might use "live preview" on rare occasion, but I’d rather have a true 100% viewfinder, dammit!
@phlewght: i guess. But really I don’t want them caring about that. They need to care about me, dammit! 🙂
You you you — it’s all about you, isn’t it?!
That’s it!! I’ve had it!! I cannot work like this! I’ll be in my dressing room!
@phlewght: *sigh* You’re such a diva.