Battery Grips: Storing the Battery Door

I thought I’d shy away from something solely focused on the 5D Mark III this time around, and discuss something that may prove beneficial to more than just owners of that camera. So this will be beneficial to those who use a battery grip on their camera.

In the course of talking to someone the other day, a question came up regarding the camera’s battery door and did I carry it with me in my bag in the event I want to revert to a gripless camera temporarily. I said I store the camera’s battery door with the grip, and they asked how I did that. They never knew that most grips will hold the door for you. Later, I asked a couple others if they knew about this, and come to find out they hadn’t noticed this feature either.

In the case of the Canon 5D Mark III, the door clips onto the portion of the grip that slides into the camera. Simply clip it there in the same manner you would attach it back to the camera.

All my camera grips have a similar feature built into them, and this would include my older and aftermarket grips. The way to store the battery door may vary somewhat, such as the example below from my old Canon Rebel XT. My Canon 40D is more similar to this. The door slides down into a slot on the grip, which is similar in concept to the 5D Mark III grip above.

So, if you aren’t aware of this, you might want to pull your grip off and give it a quick check. You may be in for a surprise, giving you one less small item to keep up with in your camera bag. Those little battery doors can become lost pretty easily!