Originally posted by charchri4 I've been shooting a K-3 for about 6 months now and am wondering why you guys want a grip on them. I can't see battery life being worth it the battery in mine is good for all day and 2000 shots easy. I don't even see the need to have a second battery so what is the advantage to having a grip on the camera?
You're getting 2000 shots from one battery? That's very, very unusual. Ricoh lists the K3 as having battery life of around 720 shots without flash or 560 with 50% flash usage. Of course, if you frequently use LiveView rather than the viewfinder, this drops quite considerably, and same with video.
Anyway, the reasons I use a grip on both my K3 and K3II are:
- camera balances better, especially with heavier / longer lenses (faster zooms and tele primes tend to be quite chunky and heavy)
- there is more to grip - all fingers of your hand have something to hold, and it generally feels nicer to use (to me, at least)
- when shooting a lot in portrait orientation, it's much easier to use the controls on the grip rather than the body
- no need to charge as often... with a fully charged battery in the camera and one in the grip, I'm good for several weeks of normal use (although I tend to swap out the grip battery when it gets low - this way I rarely have to charge the one in the camera)
The ability to power the camera from AA batteries in the grip's battery adapter is nice too, although I've never had to resort to that.
There are occasions where I take the grip off... If I just want a small, light combo with me, I might have one of my prime lenses on the body and no grip...
Last edited by BigMackCam; 03-16-2016 at 05:18 AM.