How to Calibrate laptop battery

How to Calibrate laptop battery

After using for months, the battery get weak and cant fully discharge. Also in this situation the laptop battery’s 76% even less in work.Now we need to Calibrate laptop battery. I found a note about recondition laptop battery from Dell laptop battery manufacturers handbook. Surprisingly, it offered some really helpful laptop battery calibration and maintenance tips, which Id like to share with you:

Calibrating a Battery Pack

When to Calibrate laptop battery
Even if a battery pack is heavily used, it should not be necessary to calibrate it more than once a month. It is not necessary to calibrate a new Dell GK479 pack before first use. However, make sure that the battery pack is fully charged, especially if it is the only power source.

Calibrate Dell 1721 Battery ack under the following conditions:
? When the battery status display seems inaccurate.
? When you observe a significant change in normal batteryrun time.
? When the battery pack has not been used for one monthor more.

How to Calibrate laptop battery
To Calibrate Inspiron 1501 Battery pack, you must fully charge, fully discharge, and then fully recharge the battery pack.

Charging the Battery Pack

Fully charge the Apple A1185 battery pack when the notebook is in use. To charge the battery pack:
1. Insert the battery pack into the notebook.
2. Connect the notebook to external power through an AC adapter. (The battery light turns on.)
The battery light turns off when the battery pack is fully charged.

Discharging the Battery Pack

Disabling Hibernation
To fully discharge the battery pack, disable Hibernation temporarily.
To disable Hibernation:
? Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or access Power Options > Hibernate, and clear the Enable Hibernate support check box.

Discharging the battery Pack
After the battery light turns off, which indicates that the battery pack is fully charged, begin discharging the latitude d520 battery pack.

To fully discharge the Sony battery pack:
1. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar, or select Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options > Power Schemes.
2. Write down the 3 settings in the Plugged In column and the settings in the Running on Batteries column, so you can reset them after calibration.
3. Select the drop-down lists and set all 6 options in both columns to Never.
4. Select the OK button.
5. Disconnect the notebook from the external power source, but do not turn off the notebook.
6. Run the notebook on battery power until the battery pack is fully discharged. The battery light begins to blink when the battery pack has discharged to a low-battery condition. When the battery pack is fully discharged, the power/Standby light turns off and the notebook shuts down.

Recharging the Toshiba laptop Battery Pack
1. Connect the notebook to external power and keep the notebook connected until the battery pack is fully recharged and the battery light turns off. ?You can use the notebook while the battery pack is recharging, but the battery pack will charge faster if the notebook is turned off.
2. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or select Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > PowerOptions > Power Schemes.
3. Reenter the 3 settings you wrote down for the 3 options in the Plugged In column and for the 3 options in the Running on Batteries column.
4. Select the OK button.

Now you already Calibrate laptop battery

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Hack laptop battery notice

Hack laptop battery notice

In the last article, We introduce the way “How to hack dead laptop battery”. But as far as we know the hack battery is a dangerous and perplexing work for the professional guy. Most of us only know how to take apart the battery pack and solder the cells to the circuit board, this may cause some damage to electrocircuit.

After using for a long time, the laptop battery (A1175) capacity would reduce, resulting in shortened life of the notebook. This is mainly caused by an internal battery batteries aging failure. In serious condition, we cant solve the problem by battery calibration procedures or repeatedly charging and discharging. For this issue, many fans will open the battery case, to find the failure and replace batteries cells, they think that will be able to solve the problem. The actual situation is really so?

Carefully Replace the battery cells

Most laptop battery are made up of lithium-ion batteries cells, and lithium-ion VGP-BPS5A battery life is basically a constant, only 500 ~ 800 times charge life. Therefore, if the regular use of batteries for notebook power supply, 1 ~ 2 years later, due to the internal battery aging, it is easy to achieve the life of the batteries expire. Although we have detected in the open cell batteries, the show is a one or two damaged batteries. even if you replace the failure batteries, the battery return back to normal in a short period of time, it can not be used again soon as the entire failure of other batteries.

In that case, replace all the internal laptop battery can solve the problem? In fact, it is difficult to do this. Because in the original battery, its internal batteries is a precise match, and the capacity of batteries, terminal voltage and internal resistance are in a good consistency. And the battery we buy in the market has not been tested and matched, we can not matching for the batteries under the amateur condition, so the capacity, internal resistance and other parameters will inevitably vary. In the internal battery, the batteries are charged together after the series (in the majority of notebook batteries, the batteries will be divided into eight groups, four in series and then parallel to form a battery pack), as a result of the rechargeable battery the same current, in which the smallest capacity batteries will of course be full of electricity, while the other is not enough battery power, the battery terminal voltage can not set the voltage, charging circuit will continue to charge Vaio VGN-SZ battery pack. In this way, the original fully charged rechargeable batteries will be over-charged.

To reduce the charge time, the current of laptop charging circuit is very big, it will produce great heat when charging, so the liquid 40Y6795 batteries temperature and pressure rise, internal electrolyte easily dry or overflow , so the batteries capacity decline and even explose. The total storage capacity of the battery determined by one of the smallest capacity batteries, and this will turn into a vicious cycle, after repeated charge-discharge, the entire battery capacity will significantly decline.

At the same time, a number of laptop batteries in order to prevent unauthorized users to open the replacement of Dell D820 batteries, have the smart chip protection and anti-line openings. As long as the shell to open the battery or batteries from the battery in the circuit board removed, intelligent protection circuit will stop the output of the battery. Even if we put the batteries back to the battery circuit board or close the battery case, the protection of its smart chip still can not be restored. In this way, the battery will not be able to normal output. We need to reset the smart chip in order to solve this problem, but the amateur conditions, we are unable to reset the smart chip. Therefore, from time to time change batteries cell may cause permanent damage to the battery.

So, how do we solve the battery problem? The best way is to buy a new original battery, but now a new original Thinkpad R50 battery or even a few thousand dollars, to spend so much money is too high, exceeding the carrying capacity of many consumers. However, there are a number of professional notebook repair station, its equipment and technology are good, but there are some repair stations and manufacturers of batteries there is a long-term cooperative relations, the battery can be manufactured to precise matching. This will ensure the maintenance of quality.

In these places the price of batteries for about 300 million, although replacement of batteries on their own to higher prices, but will keep the Thinkpad T41 battery’s long-term use. In addition, some maintenance stations for maintenance had also carried out a six-month battery warranty. And we use these six months, as long as there are a hundred times to ensure that the battery charge and discharge around, and battery capacity and stability during this period, then after the battery will enter a stable period, the damage is not easy.

Have know-how to maintain the battery

In any case, replace the batteries do not need our small price to pay, so we have to use in day-to-day attention to the maintenance of the battery to extend battery life.

To protect the battery, first of all to reduce the number of Thinkpad T42 battery, that is to say when in the city, do not use the battery as much as possible. This can reduce the number of battery charge and discharge, longer battery life. While this caused some inconvenience to use, but every time you think about the use of batteries, need money to pay two dollars, or you take it easy.

The internal structure of the battery

Battery calibration procedures can extend the PCGA-BP2V battery life, has been a subject of heated discussion. Support the view that correction can eliminate the battery memory effect of batteries to extend battery life. The opponents believe that the use of lithium-ion batteries have no memory effect, so the correction process will only increase the number of battery charge and discharge and shorten battery life. In fact, understanding these two are not comprehensive. Although lithium-ion batteries to reduce the memory effect, but the memory effect still exists.

Indeed the PCGA-BP4V battery calibration can reduce the memory effect, but this is not the most important, the battery calibration procedure is to establish the main functions of the battery and control circuit so that the control circuit can correctly identify the capacity of the battery, so to avoid battery overcharge or over-discharge phenomenon. At the same time, the system can also be exhausted before the battery shutdown to protect data security. However, the frequent use of battery calibration procedures will increase the number of battery charge and discharge. Therefore, we run once every three months about the battery calibration procedures it.

We in the use of batteries for notebook power supply or power adapter for charging the Sony laptop battery, do not unplug the notebook’s battery. Because the battery is charging or discharging state, the currents are very large, if we try to plug the battery, then, it is easy to have a spark, not only will cause contact of ablation, may also be caused by the impact of current circuit board or battery laptop charging circuit damage.

In addition, many people there are still some misunderstanding on the use of batteries. For example, the “new purchase to go through the Apple laptop battery charging and discharging several times to activate,” “notebook batteries do need to put a” matter of fact, with the memory effect of lithium batteries and battery to reduce the improvement of internal protection circuits. These factors impact on the battery capacity has been very small, we run on a regular basis as long as the battery calibration procedure of these operations will be able to eliminate the impact of the battery, so we need not care too much for this purpose to wait on your notebook, after all, the battery is used used.

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Go out of laptop battery maintenance eight Mistakes chapter One

Go out of laptop battery maintenance eight Mistakes chapter One

In notebook computers, Pavilion DV8000 battery is a love-hate component, it gives the mobile use of notebook computers the ability to continue to work at every turn but a few days compared to a week or even mobile phones and MD, notebook battery time remains a tooth If the cell phone battery can only use eight hours, people would be reviled, but it results in the notebook PC which is the pride of the best, to say the development of notebook computers in the slowest parts, in addition to the keyboard should turn the battery

That there is such a joke: Intel’s investment and technology through participation in support of the new battery technology, “For us, the lithium batteries in the 1990s has been good enough,” director of marketing for Intel’s mobile platforms, said Mooly Eden, “Battery Improvement of teens just like the relationship between young people and the same: everyone talking about, but no one has done. ”

Maintenance Pavilion DV9000 batteries notebook computer users has been a hot topic, but in fact there a lot of misunderstanding, in the final analysis from two aspects, one is “thinking does not keep up with the nickel-metal hydride batteries to lithium batteries of changes”, while a more comedy, from the phone, because in fact the majority of mobile phone users access to the first use of the equipment repeatedly rechargeable battery, it will take for granted some of the habits of mobile phone to the laptop was an extension of.

I did not intend to cultivate the majority of notebook users into experts, then there is no need, I just want to bring some of the most vulnerable to clarify the misunderstanding and give the correct perspective and practices.

A misunderstanding 1 : the need for notebook computers bought three times repeated charge-discharge in order to activate the battery.

Unless you buy a notebook computer is more than one year of product inventory, or need not do so because there are Pavilion DV1000 batteries in the battery when the factory has been activated, and the batteries in the package when the battery into the notebook, after a equivalent to the activation of the test, so you get the battery in hand, already have been activated, and again three charge-discharge process was an increase in unnecessary depletion of the battery.

Misunderstanding 2: the first charge must be sufficient enough for 12 hours.

This early stage those who do not have the pavilion DV4000 battery control circuit of the Ni-MH battery models are applicable, but for now have a smart charging and discharging control circuit for the notebook battery is a joke, when the notebook computer battery is full, the charge current will be automatically cut off , even if you continue to charge 120 hours, there will not be any change in status, and generally speaking, even the slowest machine charge, 6 hours when fully charged, the rest of the “charge” is just a waste of their time. It is time to get new machines should be fully discharge first rechargeable Pavilion ZV6000 battery.

Misunderstanding Three: the need for regular battery calibration, the total charge released once a month.

Strong memory effect for nickel-hydrogen batteries, which is an essential task, but for Li-ion Pavilion DV2000 battery, the cycle is too frequent, and lithium batteries does not completely eliminate the memory effect, but has greatly reduced the memory effect, if you use the battery is frequent, then you should discharge the battery to the relatively low (about 10 ~ 15%) re-charging, but even if the discharge to the open machines are not (0 ~ 1%), belong to the lithium batteries have greater depth of injury discharge generally every two months to do the operation once it. If you rarely use the battery, then every 3 months as long as the first such operation carried out on it.

Misunderstanding Four: correction to enhance the battery capacity can improve the battery capacity

The so-called correction, when the actual capacity of the Pavilion DV6000 battery and control circuit capacity not the same as the record, the depth of a battery charge and discharge operation, so that a record control circuit to the battery close to the actual situation, this is a true performance of the battery capacity rather than enhance the capacity of the operation, the key factor here is the actual capacity of the battery, if the actual battery capacity than the control circuit in the capacity to record high, correction can increase the battery capacity seems, if the actual Pavilion ZV5000 battery capacity than the control circuit the capacity to record low, the correction will reduce the battery capacity seems also that many people debate the reasons for the effect of correction, keep in mind that correction is the true battery capacity is shown by the elimination of the battery and control circuit between the deviation, as demonstrated by the capacity will increase or decrease, this is the status of the battery itself, rather than corrected by your decision. Correction is likely because the battery discharge when the depth of injury, but a substantial reduction in capacity.

Many manufacturers provide a battery calibration procedure carried out, the Windows version and BIOS version, it is best to use these procedures to correct, Windows version can be carried out while working, BIOS version can not be like this.

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How to Re-calibrate laptop battery

How to Re-calibrate laptop battery

In the last artcile we know how to calibrate laptop battery. Now let me introduce some tips about re-calibrate laptop battery.

It is difficult to predict how long a laptop battery charge will last because each computer user has different habits and needs. The rate at which you use laptop battery power will determine how long you can use the battery of your laptop. You can re-calibrate your laptop battery if the battery’s life has gotten shorter over time. Your laptop battery might need a good calibration if it doesn’t seem to be getting the mileage that it should. How to re-calibrate laptop battery? The following paragraphs will give you the answer.

First put the laptop computer to sleep by turning off the screensaver and other power management settings of the computer. Then fully charge the computer and allow it to run all the way down until the computer shuts off automatically. Once the laptop battery has fully drained, charge it back up again and restore the screensaver and power management settings.

Re-calibrate your battery every month or so by fully charging, fully discharging, and then fully charging again. Basically to have a chance to re-calibrate your laptop battery is to turn off all power-saving features completely and then fully recharge them. If it doesn’t work for the first time then try two more full discharges and recharges.

The above way of re-calibrating the laptop batteries works well with laptops using Ni-MH cells. But not with laptops using Li-Ion batteries because deep discharges will actually decrease the charge capacity and lifespan of Li-Ion cells. Moreover Li-ion batteries irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year from the time of manufacture at a typical 100% charge level at 25deg.C, even when unused. Li-ion batteries irreversibly lose approximately 2%, 4%, 15% at 0deg.C, 25deg.C and 40deg.C respectively, when stored at 40% charge level. That is every deep discharge cycle decreases the capacity of the Li-ion batteries. As the Li-Ion batteries are chemical in nature, charging and recharging is not going to fix the problem once the chemical reactions stop happening. Therefore the best advice for re-calibrating the Li-Ion batteries is to store the battery at 40% charge if it kept unused for any unlimited period of time. Also don’t leave the battery in the laptop if you don’t use the battery or if you plug the laptop into outlet power.

You can also re-calibrate your laptop battery using Thinkpad T61 Battery Maximizer in order to maximize your laptop battery’s life. If your laptop has IBM ThinkPad Battery MaxiMiser and Power Management features installed, you can verify the condition of the laptop battery. You can check the status of your battery using the Battery MaxiMiser Gauge in the taskbar tray. The ThinkPad’s Lithium Ion battery pack that seems to be an intelligent battery uses a microprocessor to monitor its capacity. Then the microprocessor of the battery pack passes the information about the remaining battery capacity to the laptop. The laptop indicates the capacity with high accuracy.

Using the Dell inspiron 6400 Laptop Battery Learning Utility, a modified version of a Win98 boot floppy, can also help you. Just place it in the floppy drive, and then turn on the computer. The re-calibration process is automated and takes about six hours to finish. This utility is available in different versions for different models. You can run the utility every two months.

If the laptop battery is still bad then it must have developed a memory that cannot be erased easily. If calibration doesn’t help, then it is the right time to purchase another battery.

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Dell inspiron 6000 detail infomation

Dell Inspiron 6000 D Specs: 

• 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium M 730 (Sonoma), 533MHz FSB and PCIe x16 chipset
• 15.4 inch WSXGA+ LCD Panel (Samsung)
• 512 MB DDR2 400 MHz ram
• 60 GB Ultra ATA Fujitsu 4200rpm hard drive
• 64 MB ATi Mobility Radeon X300
• Microsoft Windows XP Home
• 24x CD-RW/DVD (Sony)
• Intel 2200 b/g internal wireless card
• 6-cell lithium ion battery
• 4 USB ports
• 1 IEEE 1394 FireWire port
• Secure Digital I/O card slot
• 1 PCMCIA card slot
• 2 front facing speakers
• VGA output
• Optional S-Video and composite video out with adaptor cable
• Audio-out (headphones) and Mic-in
• Integrated 10/100 network Ethernet card
• Internal 56k modem
• Powerful rechargeable dell insprion 6000 battery

The Dell Inspiron 6000 is a very nice compromise between the different extremes of the laptop market. Weighing over 3 kg it is not an ultra-light machine, but it isn’t a huge desktop replacement PC either. Instead it offers a bit of both, decent performance even with games, while still portable.

Thanks to its ATI Radeon Mobility X300 128 MB graphics card, which is an optional upgrade, the Dell Inspiron 6000 in this configuration scores a nice 3DMark03 benchmark of 2536, which is pretty much identical to an older desktop I have with a Radeon 9600 Pro. That means you can get all games to at least run on this laptop, even if the framerates in Doom 3 won’t be nothing to write home about. It is also more than sufficient to watch DVDs on, although the DVD / CDRW drive is a bit on the noisy side.

The Dell Inspiron 6000 comes normally with a 6-cell battery. So I ordered a second battery, a 9-cell one, and for some reason unknown to me Dell decided to make both batteries 9-cell, instead of giving me a small and a big one. Nice, two of these 80 Wh batteries will last a complete transatlantic flight, each one giving up to 5 hours of power.

The Inspiron 6000 uses the standard Dell keyboard featuring many dedicated buttons. There are many functions available too including the wireless toggle, battery meter, and an eject button for the CD/DVD drive. You’ll also find volume controls, brightness settings, and others have their own function keys too. The keyboard is comfortable to use and of a normal standard size for a 15 inch laptop. It’s actually identical to the XPS2/9300 keyboard as well. 

The Inspiron 6000 comes with two stereo speakers. The sound output is above what you’d expect from a laptop but nothing you’d want to play loud and brag about in public. There is no subwoofer on this system which does detract some from the sound experience. Most laptops don’t have subwoofers so most people will be pleased with the sound coming from the 6000. It’s much better than what my old Sony GRZ630 used to put out. One thing I like about the sound on the 6000 over my XPS2 is that there is little difference between sound off and sound level 1. It’s a more steady increase in volume. >

This is a really simple point. This system has outstanding battery life. You can easily fit a 3 hour movie such as The Lord of the Rings into a single battery charge. The screen will need to be dimmed down half way but that’s about all. You won’t have much time afterwards to do anything else unfortunately. Get the 9-cell battery to enjoy more battery time if you need it.

For more infomation directly view the following video :

This place a AD: In our store we stock the most major brands and models laptop battery such as : Acer laptop battery, Compaq & HP laptop battery, Dell laptop battery, Sony laptop batteries, Toshiba laptop batteries and Apple laptop battery, Fujitsu laptop battery. All in a secure and convenient platform. Now save your money and time.

You’ll like the 6000’s panel of dedicated CD controls and its surprisingly good stereo sound. (Only one other model in our roundup, the Fujitsu LifeBook N6010, offered better audio.) There’s no instant-on button for playing discs without using Windows, but you can play CDs while the lid is closed, because the music buttons and speaker outlets remain exposed. Pressing one of the buttons momentarily lights the entire music panel’s bright blue LEDs, a helpful feature in dark environments.

Resource : Notebook review , Laptop showcase , PC world .

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introduce about External laptop battery

External laptop battery

Usually we buy a laptop for mobile work, but we all know that the laptop only can work a short time as the original laptop battery capacity is too small. So we need a replacement. There are many laptop battery replacements on the market, but most of them are the copy of OEM laptop battery, it means that we need to insert the battery into laptop. Restricted by the shape of the laptop these replacements capacity also are not enough to power the machine working 8-9 hours.

Now there has been a external laptop battery on the market. The external laptop battery connect the laptop with a USB interface instead of putting into the laptop. So the external laptop battery can have large capacity only add more cell into the battery pack. Compare to the trad laptop battery, the external laptop battery can work about 8-10 hours.

Now I introduce some External laptop battery Pack Features below :

The application of the users :

  1) laptop users for a long time: the user industries, such as military, education, mines, railways, forestry, agriculture and other field workers, notebook crazy gamers

  2) mobile PC users;

  3) 12V inverter: DC voltage from 12V to 220V AC inverter for a variety of portable devices power supply.

Lithium batteries power the laptop steady, more ssecurity than the original AC / DC power converters. With high-capacity battery you can travel in time to work, entertainment and wireless Internet access, or when the emergency response as the use of UPS.

Some users may only believe the OEM laptop battery replacement, worried about that the external laptop battery reduce the laptop security. In fact, users can trust the security of an external battery. External battery make of the lower voltage and control circuitry , with anti-intelligent-off charge, take-off, over-current, over-voltage detection and control circuit, the circuit is more safety of their own notebook charge. In addition, when you buy a external laptop battery, be sure to buy a famous brand batteries, and purchase in the designated agent, avoding buy the second-hand external laptop battery.

The article is from : External laptop battery

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Charge your Battery

The circuitry to recharge the batteries in a portable product is an important part of any
power supply design.  The complexity (and cost) of the charging system is primarily

This chapter will present charging methods, end-of-charge-detection techniques, and
charger circuits for use with Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal-Hydride (Ni-MH),
and Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries.

Slow Charge

A Li-Ion battery is unique, as it is charged from a fixed voltage source that is current lim-
ited (this is usually referred to as constant voltage charging).

The maximum rate of trickle charging which is safe for a given cell type is dependent on
both the battery chemistry and cell construction. When the cell is fully charged, contin-
ued charging causes gas to form within the cell. All of the gas formed must be able to
recombine internally, or pressure will build up within the cell eventually leading to gas
release through opening of the internal vent (which reduces the life of the cell).

Fast Charge

Fast Charge
Fast charge for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH is usually defined as a 1 hour recharge time, which
corresponds to a charge rate of about 1.2c.  The vast majority of applications where
Ni-Cd and Ni-MH are used do not exceed this rate of charge.

It is important to note that fast charging can only be done safely if the cell temperature is
within 10-40°C, and 25°C is typically considered optimal for charging.  Fast charging at
lower temperatures (10-20°C) must be done very carefully, as the pressure within a cold
cell will rise more quickly during sony laptop battery charging, which can cause the cell to release gas
through the cell’s internal pressure vent (which shortens the life of the battery).

The chemical reactions occurring within the Ni-Cd and Ni-MH fujitsu laptop battery during charge are
quite different:
The Ni-Cd charge reaction is endothermic (meaning it makes the cell get cooler), while
the Ni-MH charge reaction is exothermic (it makes the cell heat up).  The importance of
this difference is that it is possible to safely force very high rates of charging current into
a Ni-Cd cell, as long as it is not overcharged.

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Battery Grip

The article is from digitalcamerabattery.us

The first let me introduce the basic function of battery grip for you :

1) : Battery gripcan be used as a big external battery receptacle – You can put your 2- 3 digital camera batteries into it instead into your machine. So it deeply last your machine’s working time.

2) : Battery grip cankeep your digital camer balance when putting on the ground. It means when you want to auto-shoot a family phtography , it can successly achieve it without falling down.

3) : Battery Grip has a simple shutter that makes vertical shutter more easy.,

From Wikipedia : A battery grip is an accessory for an SLR/DSLR (and occasionally other cameras), which allows the the camera to hold multiple batteries to extend the battery life of the camera, and adds a vertical grip with an extra shutter release (and other controls), facilitating the shooting of portrait photography.[1]

It usually attaches to the camera body through the cameras own battery compartment and provides a cassette to hold additional batteries to increase the battery life for the camera. Most battery grips also come with a second cassette allowing the photographer to shoot using multiple AA batteries.

Most battery grips are designed to fit only one or a few specific camera models, since they must match the body’s shape, connectors, and power requirements.

Now take a look at vedio of Battery grip and battery resource, you will know more about it.

Now you can see the review from : http://www.all-things-photography.com/canon-battery-grip.html

The Canon Battery Grip – Is it worth adding for the extra expense

If you own either a Canon EOS 400D, EOS 350 XTi, EOS 30D or the EOS 40D, you have probably either got or have considered adding an additional Canon battery grip.

Once I had added the Canon battery grip BG-ED3, all was well in my world once more. I wondered why Canon didn’t make the cameras with the grip already attached and then realised that there has to be more distinction between the “semi-pro” range and the professional cameras (plus it is a nifty marketing ploy I must admit).

The additional grip for me adds certain functionality that I just couldn’t do without, the main one being the vertical shutter release and controls. When you are shooting heavily with little time to play around, it is nice and so less awkward to be able to throw the camera into a vertical “portrait” position and feel just at home as in “landscape” mode.

This was all emphasised even more when I upgraded to the EOS 20D which Canon had made even smaller. In my hands it felt almost like a toy so the Canon battery grip BG-E2 was fitted immediately. Once again, all was well. See more info from Electronic Link

The way I tend to carry a camera has changed too. I very rarely have it around my neck and use the strap to wrap around my wrist for security (from dropping as well as “snatch” theft). I tend to hold it by one of the grips, either the built in side grip or the added battery pack grip.

As you can see from this image, by adding the Canon battery grip, both grips become the same length, again making life just a little easier. Also, don’t forget one very important point…what the grip is really for…adding extra battery power!

The additional life in your camera could be the difference between getting all the shots and just most of the shots…quite an important issue if you shoot weddings etc. This battery grip now is onle manufactured for canon nikon, not for sony apple Toshiba.

If you haven’t tried your camera with a grip, give it a go or better still just buy one, you won’t be disappointed and it will add to the resale value when you come to upgrade and lets face it, they look good too! The best prices I have found, and where I bought my grip for the EOS 20D was B and H. They have just about every accessory you can think of at the best prices, and they deliver on time too.

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