Scottlewisphotography spotted a new vertical grip for the Sony A7 cameras made by the Chinese company Meike. It should be on sale in two months for around 80 Euro. They will also launch a new external flash for E-mount cameras too.
Meike currently sells under [shoplink 29237 ebay]water housings and adapters for Sony one Bay (Click here)[/shoplink].
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Seriously, is there any point in buying $2k+ camera and saving $200 on buying some half-baked chinese accessory for it? I had meike vertical grip for my old A300 once and it was lacking in so many ways compared to the original Sony one, that I never really wanted to use it. Its most prominent flaw was that it had serious problems in getting the batteries to work (even with original ones the camera would occassionaly indicate the battery is missing), and it drained current from both batteries at once, not in sequence like the original one.
Maybe that’s the case on your grip for A300. If the new grip works fine on A7 series I don’t see any reason not consider it.
I kinda agree, but at the same time, I believe Meike has stepped up in their quality…. most likely better stuff now than the grip the made for the 2007/8 a300
I tend to agree, although I’m not sure it is quite as clear cut with this grip.
Those for the A99 and A77 have considerable duplication of controls, which help enormously over having just a ‘battery holder’ version. However, the official A7 grip only has the two extra buttons other than the front and rear dials.
That said, I’m not even convinced of the need for any grip on this particular camera. I’ve used grips, or that format of camera, for years and always preferred it, but something about the small factor means that you don’t get the same advantage for portrait orientation and lose one of the benefits. It’s great being small, but then you make it big! Mine has been off and on repeatedly and I still can’t decide.
$2k? Mate you can get an a7 for under $1000 in Australia. Also the build quality of the Sony vertical grip isn’t exactly great. The door is extremely flimsy. Can’t be much worse.
“half baked chinese accessory”… Seriously dude, Meike has been around for a little while now. They just released three well thought specialized accessories for our brand. They’ve improved since your a300 days. I’m finding the Chinese accessories much higher quality than they used to be. They are innovative too.
We should have nothing but praise and support for this effort from Meike.
It’s great third parties are providing these options for us. Here is the link to the grip. http://www.mkgrip.com/index.php?m=product&a=product_view&tpid=126&tid=217&id=137
It will most likely work on A-mount, too 😉 i doubt some company will still produce smart accessory flashes.
It’s a bit of a pity they didn’t take the opportunity to actually improve the ‘grip’ element of the grip, I use mine a lot but the portrait orientation grip is pretty woeful. Nice to see the addition of remote triggering and timer remote though.
The images (with Chinese text) on their homepage show that it has the MF/AF/AEL button, C1 button and front wheel in addition to trigger.
http://www.mkgrip.com/Uploads/attached/image/20140922/20140922143654_64313.jpg
your point? the original has those as well. this is a straight up copy.
My point was to serve you some extra pictures that wasnt in the article. Sorry for my ignorance. I should have known that you wouldnt care…
Please make one for A6000
And a adaptor with A77II focus modual and I will come to the dark side.
From the Zeiss Photokina presentation:
Does this mean Zeiss only lenses? or Zeiss and Sony together?
http://www.photographyblog.com/images/uploads_ee2/news_gallery_images/zeiss_photokina_presentation_18.jpg
“Zeiss” and “Sony Zeiss” lenses together
Alright then.
That should pretty much cover plenty to be a complete system.
nice meikE. now it’s time for the price of a’s to get real and there is more then a month without new models? wtf is going on ? where is the new a7 ? 🙂 can’t wait anymore.. the new iPhone soon will be “here”.. then watch is comming… new retina’s february… maybe new 12″ model earlier.. simply awesome.
And their new flash is quite sexy as well. Small, GN32 at us$60… http://www.mkgrip.com/index.php?m=product&a=product_view&tpid=128&tid=205&id=124
No bounce mode makes it worthless.
Wait, hold on…. that new hotshoe adapter for the old NEX smart terminal 1/2 allows TTL with Min/Sony flashes? That is HUGE news. How did they do that? Does that mean the NEX-5etc were always capable of TTL but Sony just crippled them?
It would be nice if Sony would make double sized batteries for the vertical grips, which would be capable to more than the sum of two batteries thanks to less housing and not needing an adapter.
You know I’ve always thought that they could really put 2 batteries inside a grip of that size with minimal modifications. Just look what functions it has. It has a shell for you to put your hands around, a few buttons, and a big hollow to put batteries in. They’re all primitive functions that require minimal space, most of the space should be able to be left for housing batteries.
Well I’m proposing a single double sized battery. The a99 grip houses 2 batteries and an adapter that pops out – consolidating those 3 items would mean greater overall power.
One more type to manufacture could mean unnecessary work. If Sony had the slightest intention of designing a new type of battery, it would have done so for the FE system. Right now battery cross compatibility between the systems mean nothing and is costing FE bodies the basic stamina they should have.
Sony’s profit margins on batteries & accessories is high. The battery life on the SLT & EVF cameras is poor. I suspect a double battery, at leat for amount, would do well (especially since Sony has been bundling grips with the a99 for a year and a half).
Isn’t the hotshoe that provides full TTL for the old NEX bodies a huge deal? How did they do that? Does that mean the feature was always there, but Sony purposely crippled it?
Meika no es Meike
Amazing. This new battery grip also appears to increase the a7’s LCD screen resolution, increase clarity and change aspect ratio! It must employ some kind of nano technology that physically restructures your camera? Great news nonetheless.
http://i.imgur.com/C8ZAzK7.jpg
Does it come with the intervalometer as well? Would be nice to do silent timelapses!
Don’t trust china’s design shit… It is ugly on the outside and worst on the inside~