Patent: Canon universal battery grip

[Canon Rumors]

Keith over at Northlight Images has uncovered a Canon USA patent showing what appears to be a “universal” battery grip for Canon cameras.
It looks like the battery grip itself can use various “adapters” to fit on various camera bodies. There is also gearing that allows you to move the position of the tripod screw.
You can see in the images below two different camera bodies illustrated and how the adapter could work between the camera and the battery grip.

I think this would definitely be a welcomed advance in battery grip design for consumers.

Continue reading...

 

[stefang]

I'm not so sure about this. I always used a grip on my EOS's, starting with an analogue EOS5, but never really liked how they fit to the bodies. That's one reason I like my EOS 1Ds.
And now Canon thinks it can get away with a one size fits all....

 

[Stuart]

Will grips be a more regular sale item with mirrorless bodies typically taking more battery juice than dSLRs

 

[Chaitanya]

Will grips be a more regular sale item with mirrorless bodies typically taking more battery juice than dSLRs

It certainly seems like grips are more common with MILC for batterylife but they are really useful from ergonomic standpoint.

 

[uri.raz]

I'll be happy to buy a universal grip, but wonder what would make Canon give up on profits from making new grip for each new camera.

 

[Deleted member 381342]

I don't know how I feel about this, I expect my grip to give me buttons in the same place as my body. Will wait and see if it ever comes to be.

 

[JustUs7]

I'll be happy to buy a universal grip, but wonder what would make Canon give up on profits from making new grip for each new camera.

Give up on profits? Nah. Make a low cost adapter and charge a nice margin. R&D costs for a one time universal battery grip that they don’t need to redesign for every new camera body and charge the same for this grip as for all their body specific grips. A lot more profit in this model.

People with more than one body will likely still buy more than one grip. Especially if bringing multiple bodies on a shoot.

 

[StoicalEtcher]

Give up on profits? Nah. Make a low cost adapter and charge a nice margin. R&D costs for a one time universal battery grip that they don’t need to redesign for every new camera body and charge the same for this grip as for all their body specific grips. A lot more profit in this model.

People with more than one body will likely still buy more than one grip. Especially if bringing multiple bodies on a shoot.

Or, possibly, patent the idea and mechanism, to stop anyone else doing it, and then carry on as before?

Having said that, given how many imitations to existing models there already are, I'm guessing it is not something that is so easy to patent away to avoid copy-cats!

 

[Deleted member 381342]

Somewhat OT: I would love to see the R5 or future R bodies being able to use the 1D batteries in the grips. This does not need to provide more FPS like Nikon, but would be handy to have one set of batteries(and one set of memory cards)

 

[sanj]

Wow. This is very thoughtful of Canon. Clap clap. I personally do not have any issues with camera ergonomics without the grip. The grip is good for me only to increase battery life.

 

[photonius]

I'll be happy to buy a universal grip, but wonder what would make Canon give up on profits from making new grip for each new camera.

Perhaps there are too many copied grips around now, and Canon is looking for a way to still make business

 

[magarity]

I think not all the cameras have the internal contacts in the battery compartment to do all the functions from a grip. In some models this would be purely for more battery and not vertical holding.

 

[Trey T]

I'm not so sure about this. I always used a grip on my EOS's, starting with an analogue EOS5, but never really liked how they fit to the bodies. That's one reason I like my EOS 1Ds.
And now Canon thinks it can get away with a one size fits all....

agreed!!!

 

[Antono Refa]

Give up on profits? Nah. Make a low cost adapter and charge a nice margin. R&D costs for a one time universal battery grip that they don’t need to redesign for every new camera body and charge the same for this grip as for all their body specific grips. A lot more profit in this model.

If a new grip design is only a matter of mechanical shape, designing a new grip should be rather cheap, esp in comparison to profit on selling many copies.

 

[Adelino]

I'll be happy to buy a universal grip, but wonder what would make Canon give up on profits from making new grip for each new camera.

Profits replacing profits. In falling market companies need to look for advantages where they can.

 

[AdmiralFwiffo]

Seems like a concept and not a product, kinda like that insane adapter that turns a mirrorless into an SLR. The adapter would be super complicated to support multiple cameras, would be less robust because it's two pieces, and the grip button layout wouldn't match the camera.

 

[Dragon]

It could be an interesting way to hook a big honking battery to an itty bitty camera (that really needs a big honking battery).

 

[unfocused]

Will grips be a more regular sale item with mirrorless bodies typically taking more battery juice than dSLRs

I think so. I had grips for my 7D and 5D III but didn’t bother with them on the 7D II or the 5D IV. But I got a free grip with my 24-105 And it stays on the R all the time. Makes a huge difference when shooting events.

 

[Tremotino]

So which battery(ies) do you put inside? Is it compatible with only one type? Since i won't buy different batteries only for the grip. Or is there a non removal lipo inside?

 

[KeithBreazeal]

I think grip design could be carried a big step further. Imagine an optical port that would feed data from the bus that goes to the in camera card slots and links to the grip. In the grip are not only batteries, but a number of card slots that could double or triple available card memory without having to shut down and replace cards.
Another possibility is a Video Processing grip that would solve the in camera head buildup. The technology exists, it's just a matter of design.