Anyway, the HLD-6 battery grip that was sold separately from OM-D might solve some of the problems... but the biggest thing was... that piece of equipment is going off at an amazing price... meaning - I cannot afford. Secondly, I don't want my OM-D to be too much bigger, but with the HLD-6, it grew to almost the same size as a DSLR. If I don't attach that battery grip... and only the mid-section grip, I cannot change battery without disassemble the grip.
I always wonder at that rationale... what in the world is Olympus engineer thinking?
Anyway, I looked into ebay for a third party grip. Saw one almost immediately that served my purpose. So I got it immediately and at a good price too.
Anyway, the grip was from a China company known as iShoot. It was made of aluminium and weighed at around 120g.
Receive the grip after more than 1 month of wait, and took it out... it was very well made, with tight tolerance and excellent workmanship... well worth the money spent on it.
Anyway, I screw it onto my OM-D immediately and admired my new grip. Then it occurred to me some very disturbing issue. The grip actually covered the SD card slot of my OM-D, so as and when when I needed to change SD card, I have to unscrew the whole damn grip and remove it.
Then came the next problem, if I mount my tripodhead quick release plate to my grip, it will covered the screw that was used to tighten the grip to my camera.
Double damn.
So the only thing left to do... was to saw off part of the grip. And that is exactly what I did.
For the sake of keeping things simple, the following is what I have now.
As can be seen in the photo, my battery cover is not being block at all... so there is not need for removing of the entire grip to change battery.
Original Grip,
After modification,
As can be seen from the above photo, it is clear where I have done the modification on.
I also added EVA felt to my grip so as to give it a softer feel. It worked like a charm.
I brought the OMD to my vacation in Japan (will update on the Japan vacation) and loved the feel of it... it was simply amazing! For people who hated the tiny grip of OM-D, can try this item. Not too expensive too.
