Why is my new aftermarket battery grip draining power from batteries?

Question

After reading many reviews I decided to purchase the Zeikos grip but B&H discontinued it so I decided to go with the new Vello grip instead.

I think I might have made a mistake. The grip seems to drain power from my batteries VERY fast. I had the grip on camera with fully charged batteries and they were completely dead in a matter of days just sitting in my bag. I then charged the batteries (genuine Canon) to 100% and turned the camera off. I turned it on every hour or so and took a picture of the battery status menu. In 4 hours the battery power has gone down to 88% with power off and without taking a single picture.

What is going on? Is this thing defective or is there some setting I am missing?

I removed the grip and performed a similar test and the battery power has not gone down at all in 4 hours. The battery normally lasts a very long time so I was quite surprised to loose all the juice in a few days.

Unless there is a setting I can tweak I will return this grip and get a genuine Canon. Do people out there have any similar complaints about the Canon unit?

Asked by Jakub

Answer

I haven't used it, but I know that battery drain with aftermarket grips is a common complaint on photography forums. And people with genuine Canon and Nikon units always reply that they have no such issues.

I would say it's a defect with that particular unit. You could try a 2nd Vello grip and you may find it works well. It shouldn't drain the batteries in a matter of days with everything switched off.

Answered by MikeW

Check more discussion of this question.