In this lesson I’ll take a look at the Meiki a7II Grip for the a7R II and a7S II:
Notes
The key advantages of the battery grip are:
- You can use two batteries at the same time, for longer continuous shooting.
- You have a better vertical grip for portrait shooting
- You maintain autofocus and custom buttons, as well as aperture and shutter control (all programmable).
The key disadvantages are:
- You can’t charge the batteries via USB.
- It’s tough for video when you want to use a cage or the LWS system for matte boxes, follow focus, etc.
- It’s heavier.
My take? Unless you really need to shoot in portrait mode a lot, don’t bother with the grip.
Weight of the camera with grip and 2 batteries + strap is 880 grams.
There are two models of the grip available:
- The one I have: Meiki A7II ($62.9 on Ebay)
- Meiki A7II Pro – this has an in-built wireless receiver and you can use the supplied wireless remote to trigger it ($80 on Ebay)
The battery life indicators first show the battery in use, and when it depletes the other battery starts to get used.
The original Sony vertical grip (VGC2EM) (B&H, Amazon) is $348. For the price of one of these, you can buy 5 Meiki grips!
You need to remove the battery compartment, as I’ve shown in the video on batteries, and you can safely store it in the grip itself so you won’t lose it.
Important: With firmware versions v2.0 (for the a7S II) and v3.0 (for the a7R II), the battery grip will allow for longer recording times in 4K.
