Ownuser Camera External Battery Holder for Olympus E30

I received a Battery Grip for my Oly E30 as a Christmas present :-) from my wonderful wife. This is a good addition for the camera. It can be found at:

OwnUser

Pros:

1) Battery life - 2 batteries gives exceptional battery life.
2) Portrait shutter button - shooting in the vertical mode is easier with the additional shutter button.
3) Shutter and aperture control in portrait position.
4) Remote cable
5) IR remote

Cons:

1) Can't use remote cable with recently constructed "L" bracket.
2) No rubber or cork on bottom for friction mounting on tripod. - Seems like this would be standard.
3) A wee bit of wobble in the fit to the camera.

It also came with an external battery pack which can be loaded with "AA" cells as an additional power source. I have not used this feature yet, but with it, you should never run out of power for the camera. The external 9V power connector is a more conventional connector than the one that comes on the E30, so using an external AC power adapter might be easier as well.

I think this is a great deal.

Added 10 Jan 10: I used the external battery pack with 8 rechargeable AA cells today. It worked fine. The cells must be fully charged or you won't get many shots. The cord from the pack to the camera is short, so I stored the pack in my coat pocket. The battery pack give you another power source.

DIY Camera Battery Charging Station

I have two Oly cameras and a dual battery grip for one. I have lots of batteries. I wanted to cleanup the battery charging situation and this charging station is the result. It has two Olympus chargers for the BM-1 batteries and one charger for CR-V3 LiOn batterries. I trimmed the power leads and then soldered them together to one plug. I made the power lead short, cause it sits on my workbench, but you could leave it long. I epoxied the chargers to the wood base. The wood base give the chargers some heft so they stay put. I find it works very well. The addition of a power switch would be nice.

Ownuser Battery Grip for Olympus E510 Review

I have had the Ownuser Battery grip for my Olympus E510 for about a year now. It's time to talk about what I like about it and what I don't.

General

The Ownuser battery grip is well made and blends well with the E510. It looks like the grip that Olympus should have made.

Likes

1) Add heft to the camera, better fit in hand
2) Two batteries last longer than one - Be sure to use 1600mAh batteries to get the benefit.
3) Portrait shooting is easier - having an additional shutter button for portrait shooting is a big plus.
4) IR remote control from front or back.

Dislikes

1) Uses USB cable jack - so if you want to use the Interval Timer that was previously reviewed, you have to remove the grip connection. You still have camera power, but you loose the shutter controls on the grip. Not a big deal, I don't like fiddling with the cables and plugs
2) Will drain batteries if left on
3) Make the camera heavier - Duh

Overall, the longer battery life outweighs any negatives. I like this accessory very much. I just wish the same grip fit my E330.