Generic or official: batteries and handgrip??

[TG V1P3R]

Hi all,

Thinking of investing in a hand grip for my 400D, and wondered whether anyone had any comments on whether I should be going down the official Canon route, or whether there were any good quality generic/3rd party brands out there??

Same comment for batteries as well - noticed some places in this month's Digital Photo selling Canon equivalent batteries for £9.99, whereas the official Canon ones are somewhat more...

Any comments most appreciated

[social_lurker]

Re Grips: Generally the Canon one is supposed to be very well made (as you'd expect), but I have a cheaper one off of ebay which has a timer built in for time lapse/delayed shutter photography which was about £50 (from one of the HK based sellers) and I've never had any problems with it. It also comes with the adaptor for 6AA batteries.

Re: Batteries
I fail to see ANY difference between the 3rd party and Canon ones and I have a couple of each. I've bought them from Cheekycroc (who ships from Jersey) for about £5 delivered each.

[denno75uk]

Other brands to consider for batteries are Diamondback and Sterlingtek. Both recommended on a couple of forums.

[h4rri]

I use generic [but well named] batteries for the camera but as for grips it's official all the way. I'm sure carm's cheap grip knackered his 30D Not worth the few quid saving at the risk of your gear, I'd buy genuine Canon batteries if I could be 100% sure they would be genuine and not fakes, better a good known alternate than a dodgy fake.

[TG V1P3R]

Thanks for all the comments guys....Cheekycroc does look a good option for the batteries....can get 2 x 400D batteries for about £10 delivered

Regarding hand grip I think I'll go down the official route.