Review: a700 Vertical Grip

[KevinBarrett]

Not so recently I purchased the VG-C70AM vertical grip for the Sony DSLR-A700. I was excited to find a good price on it in late 2008 and sprang on the sale. I remember my wife being a little frustrated with me--it was the one item she really knew she could get for me for Christmas--but I also remember promising a review of it. So, for those who haven't purchased the vertical grip, I offer the following.

The grip immediately solves an ergonomic problem: vertical shooting. While the balance in the hand is not the same in vertical grip, the shape of the grip and placement of controls are almost identical except for a few key differences. The additional grip portion is deeper than the original, letting a broader portion of the camera rest against the palm of your hand, which is helpful because of the additional weight. Also the contoured grip on the front, particularly the portion which houses the front controls, is more exaggerated, giving a more reassuring grip than the original camera offers without the vertical grip. The original upright grip benefits from the extension given to it by the vertical grip's ergonomic contours. Ever get a sore spot in the palm of your hand, opposite the base of your thumb, where the lower right hand corner of the camera pressed when cantilevered by your thumb and fingers? It won't happen with the vertical grip attached.

The controls are well placed on the vertical grip and generously duplicated. I don't need to tell you all of the functions it duplicates, but I can tell you how easy they are to use. While much of the tactile differentiation between the AEL and AF/MF buttons is removed, the buttons are closer at hand, crowding on either side of that space where your thumb would rest on the back of the camera. That said, I have never once accidentally pushed them. The AEL button is just a thumb-roll away and the AF/MF button is a slightly further reach. The buttons depress with a very reassuring, almost audible, click. The exposure button is the only button from the top plate of the camera to carry over to the vertical grip, and is now accessed by the thumb.

Beware, with so many extra controls on more corners of the camera, I have, from time to time, rolled a dial and adjusted a setting without intending to do so. A fiddly, screw-type OFF/ON switch is provided to kill the vertical grip's controls, presumably to limit this occurrence, but I find it more convenient to turn the camera itself on or off as needed. Turning off the vertical grip alone, however, won't prompt the camera to tap the battery to clean its sensor.

I have heard it griped that the vertical grip occupies the camera's original battery compartment, and thus offers space for only one additional battery. This is true, but to its credit, the camera will display the remaining power of each battery in percentage and deplete only one of them at a time, telling you exactly which battery is used, by how much, and which remains untouched. Do you really want to have to remove the vertical grip (easy as it is) to replace a third battery? The two in the grip are so easily accessed, you will not miss a third.

Also, seemingly absent from all of Sony's press literature and product specifications is the fact that the VG-C70AM gives dust and moisture protection to the battery compartments of both the grip and camera body, when the camera alone offers none. Inside the door to the magazine style battery compartment of the grip is a rubber gasket which is very smartly contoured to close around all of the opening. Additionally, at the base of where the vertical grip inserts into the camera's battery compartment there is another rubber gasket to seal the camera body against the intrusion of contaminates. This should be a tremendous selling point, but goes relatively unheralded.

[Dusty]

Thanks for your observations, Kevin.

Dusty

[Javelin]

I never bought one but I did like the feel of the camera with one on and it sure is well made. I just don't know if i'd rather put the money towards something else. also it'll make the camera not fit my cases properly and I worry anout changing my grip when going ffrom portrait to landscape and back I'm really used to doing that without letting go

[picman]

Actually, for me, besides all the plus points mentioned by Kevin, having the vertical grip on the body even makes horizontal shooting easier. It is less of a strain on the wrist when resting the grip on the palm of you hand and your fingers on the zoomring. Maybe that's just me though.

Cheers, Bob.

[KevinBarrett]

I never bought one but I did like the feel of the camera with one on and it sure is well made. I just don't know if i'd rather put the money towards something else. also it'll make the camera not fit my cases properly and I worry anout changing my grip when going ffrom portrait to landscape and back I'm really used to doing that without letting go

I picked up mine at US$199 through amazon, which was quite a deal--the least expensive of the three grips available at the time. I was already interested when it dropped as low as US$249. At its full retail price it is a much tougher decision...an included NP-FM500H would sweeten the deal, but you have to decide how much you really want it. It's almost a no-brainer for anyone shooting in harsh conditions, however, with those nifty rubber seals on the battery compartments.

I almost included in my review that the new proportions it bestowes on the camera will greatly complicate packing, but it seemed obvious. There are also some ergonomic niggles with a strap attached; suddenly there are three possible configurations for strap attachment!

[Dr. Harout]

Nice review, Kevin. Thanks.

[Omega892]

I purchased an VG-C70AM grip to fit to my A700 and as with the Konica /Minolta Dynax 7D and Minolta Dynax 7 before it (both of which I still have and use) find it of the utmost value. I cannot contort my neck and shoulders as much as once I could and missed this with the A100.

I was rather dismayed by the price, about £100 more than the grips for the other two.

I had not appreciated the extra waterproofing provided with this grip, that is good. However I have discovered that as I am moving rapidly and changing aspect chasing small bugs that my chin tends to alter the settings with the grip controls on and shooting in landscape aspect. It is the C, Fn and Multi-selector that causes the difficulty, one not present with those earlier cameras.

I have a Sigma 70-300 APO Macro here which is proving rather good on the A700. I bought this second hand for under a ton. It isn't EX, I think, but does have a gold band around the front of the focus grip. The Macro is operated by setting to 300mm, sliding a switch and then the magnification can be adjusted up to 1:2.

I find this lens most useful for chasing allowing one of the other cameras with a Minolta 100mm Macro D and 1200 Ringflash for tighter shots often set up on a tripod and controlled by remote.

I had considered passing this Sigma lens on again, but with its new found utility it turns out to have been a good buy.

BTW I was pulled away whilst composing this and found myself logged out in the interim. Good thing I had saved a copy in a WP which is my habit now due to the unreliability of VM broadband connections at certain times of the day and week.

[MarcoC]

I like the ergonomics of it for sure, but each time a genuine Sony battery drains down to a low charge, instead of switching to the other, fully charged battery, it starts giving me the "Infolithium battery only" message and refuses to work unless I detach and re-attach the grip. Tried cleaning battery contacts and still does it. Tried another genuine Sony battery and it still does it. I thought maybe this was a one-off faulty grip, but on dpreview and Dyxum other grip owners have reported this fault as well (using v4 firmware by the way). Seems quality control on the grip is a bit dodgy.

[KevinBarrett]

Thanks for the heads-up MarcoC. I haven't experienced or heard of this fault before, but I have noticed that the camera will hang onto one battery well past the point of showing it empty.

Perhaps one or more of your batteries are old enough that they have lost some efficiency and appear to the VG-C70AM to be outside of the parameters for factory-spec batteries. Does this fault happen with new batteries in old grips, old batteries in new grips, or other combinations?

[MarcoC]

Kevin - this happens with the one and only VG-C70AM I own and all 3 genuine Sony batteries I own for the a700, including one purchased 9 months ago. None of the batteries are old enough to have 'lost efficiency' - the a700 hasn't been around that long after all !

Thanks for the heads-up MarcoC. I haven't experienced or heard of this fault before, but I have noticed that the camera will hang onto one battery well past the point of showing it empty.

Perhaps one or more of your batteries are old enough that they have lost some efficiency and appear to the VG-C70AM to be outside of the parameters for factory-spec batteries. Does this fault happen with new batteries in old grips, old batteries in new grips, or other combinations?

[Omega892]

Thanks for the heads-up MarcoC. I haven't experienced or heard of this fault before, but I have noticed that the camera will hang onto one battery well past the point of showing it empty.

I have just noticed odd behaviour in this department.

I have 3 sets of 2 SONY batteries all purchased this year, as was the A700 and Vertical Grip. I keep my A700 and A100 batteries (I only have 3 for that one and 5 for the D7D) segregated.

Battery 1 was indicating yellow with a stroke through the shape and battery 2 was greyed out but down one bar in its usage meter. The camera was functioning perfectly otherwise.

I switched the camera off, turned the battery compartment lock to OPEN, slid out the battery holder and then pushed it back in to house. Closed the battery door and switched on, The display came up with battery 2 showing in operation.

There is certainly a bug here.

[Omega892]

The battery bug.

I have just done a bit of searching on the web and have found something interesting, and maybe significant.

orbitcorbett at

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34374

wrote this, I have highlighted the probably significant bits in red:

Well, those (censored) engineers at Sony have done it again. I have the vertical grip for the A700 and removed the two little plastic tabs for the battery groove. The A100 batts physically fit fine now, but won't work in the camera. They don't have the right data stream that comes from the center contact. When you read voltage between the positive and center terminal on the A100 battery, you get a solid voltage. When you read it on the A700 battery, the voltage fluctuates wildly. The A700 has to "see" the right data from these overpriced batteries to work. Nice. Apparently Sony doesn't like losing revenue from knock-off batteries (which work just fine in my A100). Hopefully, someone will develop an inexpensive knock-off that works. Haven't found it yet, though.

Maybe those center contacts can build up a corrosion film which inhibits correct working. By unseating and reseating the whole battery holder contact is re-established.

I might try a tiny drop of Electrolube, and I mean a tiny drop applied by cocktail-stick transfer, on the contact if trouble persists.

Electrolube is a contact enhancer which is what I have used as a substitute for the more expensive Stabilant. I don't know if that latter is still obtainable.

For more info on contact enhancers have a look at this page on my web site but the Stabilant links no longer work, I'll need to fix that:

http://lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/CompNyb ... ntEnh.html

PS Yes the Stabilant links do work failure when I just tested was due to the magnificent VM BB dropping out! This poor BB is one reason why I had to give up on this forum for awhile and I thought things were getting better!