Battery grip a230

[TomG88]

Fellow photographers,

I got a little more money back this year from the IRS, so I was thinking about investing some in my gear. Now, I have a sony a230 and want to do something about the small grip, so a battery grip seemed like a reasonable investment. But, I soon found out it didn't have any contacts for a shutter release button inside the battery compartment so sony hasn't produced one yet.

Then I started to do some research and found an aftermarket battery grip just for holding 2 battery's, which seems fine. But i started thinking, would it be possible to use a standard battery grip from the a200/300/350 for the a230 and just not use the secondary shutter release button? (the a200/300/350 battery grip is a whole lot cheaper)

Thanks for helping me out,

Tom

[TomG88]

Okay,

I did a comparison and the two battery's of the a230 and the a200 don't line up at all, so you can't mount a a200 battery grip on the a230/330/380. But the alternative is the Ownuser battery grip (sold under Rokinon on ebay). Will buy it and test it soon.

Tom

[TomG88]

Okay, I ordered the rokinon battery grip BH38 for the a230/330/380 and was happy to see the package among my mail today. I unwrapped it and took a quick look around in the, short but obvious, manual. After installing it to my camera I just hold it for a while in different positions to get the feel of the extra grip. And it works very well!

The bodies of the a230/330/380 are quite small and this thing does deliver that extra bit of body to hold on to. They also made it to fit the design of the camera as well, all of the curves in the design of the camera have smooth transitions to the grip.

It can hold up to 3 batteries so enough battery life guarenteed. I now have 2 and it doubles the amount of shots from about 400 to 700-800 depending on how you shoot.

The downside however, which I saw coming, is that the external shutter control does not work because of the lack of internal shutter release capabilities in the battery compartment. I had a small hope the IR remote would work, but is does not.

Nevertheless, this piece of kit does give you loads more grip on the camera and extends the battery life. Plus it will give you a nice ego boost because your camera looks awesome and big

[TomG88]

Some people are curious what the grip looks like on the camera. So I made some photos with a camera phone.

[TomG88]

and the last one

[airiart]

nice grip...
thinking of buying one..
tks for the photo sharing!

[mpphoto]

Where did u buy it? Im searching for one. Help me please!

[PWhite214]

You can find almost anything on EBAY, but I only found a battery grip from another company.

Ownuser Battery Grip For Sony A380 A330 A230 Camera | eBay

Phil

[DavidT3]

Are you sure that the secondary shutter doesn't work? It looks to me like the battery grip extends over part of the infrared reciever, so have you tried putting it on remote commander mode and using it then?

[allray15]

Originally Posted by DavidT3

Are you sure that the secondary shutter doesn't work? It looks to me like the battery grip extends over part of the infrared reciever, so have you tried putting it on remote commander mode and using it then?

YES david is right!. You have to put in remote comander drive option from the settings so you can use the second shutter. It works and ive tried it. works pretty well and fast.