Cheap accessories for your Canon DSLR
I have a Canon 450D Digital SLR that I mess around with.. still a very casual hobby for me, but it’s fun to take photos, and there’s tons of nice gear to research and lust after.
I have pretty big hands, and the 450D is a fairly compact camera. This means I’ve usually got 3 fingers of my right hand on the camera with my pinky and the next one hanging off the camera body, and I need to grab the lens or support my right hand with my left.
I’ve been eying out the Canon BG-E5 battery grip that bolts onto the bottom of the camera for the purpose of making it a little chunkier and easier to hold. As a bonus, the grip also gives you a second set of buttons when the camera is in portrait orientation and allows you to use 2 rechargeable batteries (for double the battery life), or a cartridge taking 6x AA batteries if you’re far away from your charger and need to keep snapping.
Problem is that they are very expensive in South Africa…
SA Camera lists them for R2,299.00, and Orms charges the princely sum of R2,395.00.
Not my idea of a bargain, and I was stuck until I read on a forum somewhere that suitable generic versions were available from Dealextreme. Free shipping from Hong Kong, and low low prices made me take the plunge.
I bought this one, and I’m very happy that I went for the $73.45 option rather than springing for the a R2,300+ original from South Africa.
The quality is good – the plastics, metals, and rubber coatings are of a reassuringly good finish.
As far as I can tell, this is either a perfect clone of the Canon part, right down to the markings on the plastic, the print, the materials, and the package insert (fold-up paper, in German, English, French etc), or it’s actually the same part made in China and supplied to Canon, but supplied in this case without the Canon brand name attached.
The images on the site show a box from “Yongnuo”, but mine arrived in a box branded “Meike”.
And I’m extra-happy about the spare batteries for my camera at $6.55 each
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