Battery grips and AA batteries for your EOS

EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 5D, EOS 50D, EOS 40D, EOS 30D, EOS 20D, EOS 500D, EOS 450D, EOS 400D, EOS 350D and EOS 1000D all have the ability to be powered from AA batteries when you use the Canon battery grips. The battery grips for these models come with a battery magazine that can be used with six AA batteries but AA batteries are not all equal. With battery grips costing about the same as a couple of Canon original batteries you might be tempted to try a battery grip and AA batteries instead of a pair of Canon batteries.

In practical trials of many of the listed cameras, using AA batteries is to be thought of as a 'get out of jail free card' rather than an everyday solution. If you forgot to charge your Canon batteries and need to shoot now, then the AA route can be a life saver. However AA batteries seem to only power the cameras for a very limited number of shots before their voltage drops and the dreaded low battery indicator and warning on the LCD show. There is some hope if you choose the AA battery route and that is Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries. For some cameras they can provide longer shooting than a pair of Canon batteries in our trials, but they are not a cheap option.

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EOS 5D Mark II batteries why are they so scarce?

We like the new EOS 5D Mark II a lot, it does many great things and one nice thing is that the batteries seem to last a long time. Which is really helpful as they are a bit scarce to get in the market right now. We asked the manufacturer for a comment on the battery supply situation and they checked and said that the batteries use a new battery technology and although it says Lithium Ion on the pack actually they use a unique combination of RARE-ium and UNOBTAINium dioxide to provide power for the EOS 5D Mark II.

Rare-ium is the worlds least available metal, and can only be found in remote corners of Japanese hot springs. It also rumoured to be an essential component of missing socks.

Unobtainium dioxide is a similarly difficult gas that can only be created in conditions of absolute zero kelvin and a perfect vacuum.

However the combination provides amazing power for the EOS 5D Mark II. Canon previously experimented and even showed a working camera with a fuel cell battery in 2005. However once the designers realised that recharging the battery required photographers to throw cameras in the sea to recharge them the products never came to production.

Some photo dealers also told us that the BG-E6 battery grip and WFT-E4 wireless file transmitter are also thought to contain small traces of RARE-ium too!

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