Get a Grip! Review of the Olympus HLD-8

I’m a battery grip kinda guy. I love using them, and they are almost the first accessory I get when I have a camera (apart from the obligatory spare battery). Yes they add weight, and yes they add bulk – and that’s one of the reasons I like them. Up until switching to a mirrorless micro four thirds system I was of the ‘bigger and heavier is better” persuasion. It’s something I still sort of believe – to a point.

There are other reasons why I always opt for the grip. I like the portrait-orientation shutter button, the extra purchase it gives your hand, and the ability to add a second battery for extended shooting times. All things that, as a wedding photographer, I found very useful.

But I’m not a wedding photographer anymore. And I have ‘lightened’ my load by moving to the Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mk2. So why add a battery grip to the EM-5?

The HLD-8 comes in two sections. Genius!

For me, the addition of the HLD-8 grip for the EM-5 Mk2 makes sense for all the reasons mentioned above. It adds a portrait orientation shutter button. It adds an extra battery slot. It gives my hand more to grip onto when holding the camera, and it also adds a headphone jack for listening to audio when capturing video. The really clever design of the HLD-8 also means that you can have you cake and eat it too! Only want the extra grip portion for 90% of your shooting? Fine – just add the grip attachment (HLD-8G) section. Need more battery power (and an audio in for filming), then attach the additional battery section. Or leave the grip at home and just shoot with the camera. Lots of options. Ok, that last one you had anyway without paying for the grip – but you get what I mean.

Yet as much as I love battery grips, and always get one for whatever camera I own, it’s been almost a year with my EM-5 Mk2 and I’ve only just got the grip for it now. Why the long wait?

Mostly it was because I had convinced myself I shouldn’t get a grip for the EM-5 Mk2. With some camera decisions I make – especially if it’s a fairly costly one – I can occasionally suffer from analysis paralysis. The internet is a wonderful tool for learning and making ‘informed’ decisions about all sorts of gear – I contribute to this knowledge base myself with my blogs. But it can also subject us to information overload.

I read countless reviews on mirrorless systems, and on the Olympus EM-5 specifically, before deciding to buy one myself. And most of those reviews centred on going as light as possible and using just the body with two or three prime lenses. So that’s the way I was tempted go. Only a month or so after buying the body with 12-50mm EZ lens, I travelled to my nearest city to purchase the grip, but just couldn’t do it. I bought a 45mm f1.8 prime instead, and thought I’d done the right thing. Just me, my EM-5 Mk2, and some prime lenses against the world. Who cares about a big old grip – that’s just for DSLR users!

Trouble is, I’ve come to realise that I’m not a prime lens kinda guy. I’m a zoom lens guy. I LOVE the 12-50mm EZ lens, even if it is f6.3 at the long end. I LOVE the 40-150mm f4/5.6 as well – it’s so sharp and light (and cheap). Of course it would be great if they were faster. I would love to replace them one day with the PRO versions at a constant f2.8. But the 45mm f1.8 prime lens… not so much. I bought it, I used it once and I sold it. Same with the 17mm f2.8. I had grand delusions of being a hipster street shooter with a small camera and 17mm prime, but it’s just not me. Don’t get me wrong, they are amazing lenses. I’m just not a prime lens kinda guy. The next lens I have my eye on is the Olympus ultra-wide 9-18mm f4/5.6 lens, followed by the 75-300mm f4.8/6.7. There are rumours of a 30mm f2.8 macro coming soon – which is a prime lens that would interest me. But I’d be happy if my kit consisted entirely of zooms (with the exception of the 9mm fisheye bodycap lens).

Once I’d had this epiphany (it only took me 30 years), it freed me up to accept that the handling of my EM-5 Mk2 would be greatly improved, for me, if I added the extra grip. What tipped me over the edge was using the Olympus EM-1 recently (see my earlier post). The handling of that camera, with its large grip, was superb. With the extra grip attached, the EM-5 Mk2 looked like it would feel and handle similarly to the EM-1. So from that moment on I was sold.

So now that I have one, am I happy with it? Has it made a difference? You bet your sweet Nelly it has! My camera might be bigger and heavier now, but I don’t care. In fact, I like it better that way. It’s still nowhere near the size and weight of a 1D Mk3, or even a Canon 50D with battery grip and equivalent 24-100mm zoom lens attached. Not even close. But it has made a significant difference to the ergonomics and the handling of the EM-5 Mk2. It’s now much more comfortable (and secure) walking around carrying it one-handed (as is my want to do). The shutter button is now in a much more comfortable location – not to mention the second button for vertical shooting – and the added heft gives the camera a more stable and solid feeling when held up to the eye. Overall I’m a happy camper.

Also, with the grip attached, the cameras strap eyelet now has more room around it so my hand doesn’t rest up against it as much. This makes it far more comfortable for my hand than without the grip. Nice.

It’s not all roses though. With the grip attached, I now find accessing the function buttons on top of the camera to be a bit more awkward. Because the grip naturally moves your hand placement forward of the camera, accessing the function buttons means letting go of the grip altogether to reach them. So now it’s become very much a two-handed operation, whereas without the grip attached your shutter finger is within easy reach of these programmable buttons. A shame – but not a deal breaker. Maybe it’s something I need to get more used to?

Also, the grip completely covers the battery door at the bottom of the camera. So to change batteries in the camera you need to completely remove the grip. This isn’t hard to do of course, but just takes a little more time. To counteract this, Olympus have included an option in the menu (section K under battery options) that lets you choose which battery to use first – the one in the camera or the one in the grip. If you choose to use the one in the grip first, then once that is exhausted and it switches to the in-camera battery, just pop a fresh battery in the grip and it will start using that again. Simple.

Prime-only shooters will probably pass on the HLD-8 because of the extra weight it adds to the EM-5 Mk2. I totally get that. Maybe some should consider getting the HLD-8’G’ – just the grip portion of the unit (sans battery section)? But even that might be an unnecessary addition. If however, like me, you are more of a zoom shooter and feel that the handling of the EM-5 Mk2 could be improved if it were just a tad bigger, then the HLD-8 isn’t really an option, it’s a necessity. A beautifully made, cleverly designed and highly customisable necessity. 

Finally – just a word on what for me was the ‘elephant in the room’ so to speak – the price. At just a tad over $400NZ it certainly isn’t a cheap accessory. You can buy a 45mm f1.8 prime for that kind of money (and I did). Of course I wish it was half the price.  But after finally sucking it up and actually getting one, I’m very, very, very happy that I did.

And on that note – just a quick shout out to Hayden Himberg at Southern Cameras in Dunedin, here in New Zealand. Hayden stocks a great range of Olympus (and other) products and always seems to be able to get me what I want quickly and competitively priced. If you are looking for any kind of camera gear and live in New Zealand, give Hayden a call and see what he can do for you. Tell him I sent you :-)

Building up my Olympus MFT (Micro Four Thirds) kit

Ok - I now have the Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mk2 body with the 12-50mm WR kit lens. This will form the basis of my mirrorless micro-four-thirds system. I want to build on this basic kit now, but one restraint is always unavoidable: budget. I don't have a lot of money, and need to get the best 'bang' for my buck - without compromising (too much) on quality.

Aftermarket BLN-1 spare battery

I'll assume that the SD Memory card is a given, although this time around I did decide to buy a new card for the OMD-EM-5 Mk2 (a Sandisk 16GB Class 10). But generally speaking most photographers will have a few of these floating around. So the first additional purchase is unavoidable really - for any digital camera system. A spare battery (or batteries). I ordered a spare battery as soon as I purchased the Em-5 Mk2, and I'm probably going to purchase a few more.

BUT - I certainly didn't go out and order a second Olympus branded battery, not at $120NZ for one battery! I ordered a much cheaper aftermarket no-name rip-off, that is much cheaper ($25NZ) and actually more powerful. Go figure. It's rated at 1750mAh, whereas the Olympus battery is only 1220mAh - so in theory (at least), the aftermarket battery should last longer?

Yes, I am nervous about using cheap batteries - but this one seems fine. It does work, it does charge (in the Olympus charger), and it does seem to last as long as the Olympus battery that came with the camera, so I'll probably end up getting a couple more. With these smaller mirrorless, you can never have too many spare batteries.

Aftermarket lens hood.

Next up on the must-have accessory list; a lens hood for the 12-50mm kit lens. Again, I've already bought one - and again, I chose to get an after-market hood rather than the Olympus branded option. And, yet again, this was purely for budget constraint. The Olympus LH-55B is $90NZ!! Not quite as expensive as a spare battery, but just about! Seriously, that's just ridiculous! Apart from the fact that it really should be included with the lens in the first place, to have to spend $90NZ on it is criminal. So an after-market lens hood it is. For $35.00NZ - which I still think is pricey for a bit of plastic, but there you go.

It arrived just the other day, and the one thing I will say about the third party hoods is that they tend to be rather stiff to twist on and off. I'm always scared that the twisting is going to wrench the lens and ruin some internal electronics, so I usually get a craft knife and scrape away some of the inside plastic first so it gives a 'looser' fit. Not too loose - but looser. Helps with my piece of mind, and the hoods do come on and off better.

With SD cards, spare batteries and a lens hood sorted, which is really just the basic components to any kit, attention now turns to the big ticket items. Usually, this would be another lens. But this time my first big purchase isn't going to be another optic for the camera. This time I've got my sights set on the most important (for me) accessory for the EM-5 Mk2; the HLD-8 Grip.

Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mk2 with 2 piece HLD-8 Battery Grip. SEXY!

I'll just come straight out and say it - I'm a battery grip fanatic. I always purchase the grip for every camera I own, so the EM-5 Mk2 will be no exception. I don't have big hands (they are probably medium to small for a 48 year old male) but I still find that no matter what camera I've owned, adding a grip to it has always made the ergonomics more pleasing and the handling more comfortable. There is also always the added bonus of better portrait oriented shooting (I shoot in portrait a lot on weddings) and doubling of the battery life.

The truly great thing about the HLD-8 is that it actually comes in two different pieces; the 'grip' portion and the 'battery/portrait' portion. Cleverly, you can configure the camera to have a bigger grip just with the first section attached, or extend the battery life and include a portrait shutter button by attaching the second half. I think that's genius, and really shows the level of thought that Olympus's engineers put into these cameras. Some, if not all of them, must be serious photographers as well.

Many would argue that adding the grip defeats the purpose of switching to MFT and mirrorless to cut down on weight and size. Others question why camera manufacturers make cameras so small that they then need extra grips on them to make them useable?

In response I would say that the addition of the extra weight of the HLD-8 is 'relative'. For example, I've come from a Canon EOS 1D Mk3 which, with battery and lens attached, is about 1.7kgs (3.7 lbs), whereas the EM-5 with grip attached will weigh in at about 700gms (1.5 lbs) - less than twice the weight (and size) of the system I've moved from. I'd say that's a weight saving, wouldn't you?

And second - I don't find the EM-5 Mk2 'too' small to use without it actually. I just prefer to use a grip. In the same way that I don't find a Canon 50D or 7D too small, but still prefer to add the grip. Do I think the handling and ergonomics are improved on the OM-D EM-5 Mk2 with the addition of the accessory grip - yes I do, absolutely. As much as I think they are also improved on the 50D. I do think there are some mirrorless cameras that are too small. But the EM-5 isn't one of them.

Is there anything I don't like about the HLD-8? Yep, sure is. The price! At $400NZ it's about a third of the price of the camera itself (ouch). But even so, I still think it's worth it. Even though that's most of my budget now blown.

Finally, we get to the lens question. This is always the big question you face when looking to add to a basic one-camera, one-lens kit. Many reviewers and users say that the best lens to get after the kit lens is a fast prime - something like the 17mm f1.8 or 25mm f1.4 from Panasonic. These 'smaller' MFT camera systems are, arguably, most suited to using small primes - so it makes sense that this is what you should opt for after the kit lens, doesn't it?

Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm f4/5.6 telephoto 'kit' lens

Maybe. But for me, I think that will happen a bit further down the track. What I'm actually going to get instead of a fast prime, is the 40-150mm kit telezoom - the small, light, plastic, cheap, additional zoom that often comes bundled with Olympus MFT cameras in a two-lens configuration.

Why? For two reasons really (okay, maybe three). First, it will give me a carry-around kit that covers every focal length I could hope to use in a day of shooting - from 24 to 300mm in conventional 35mm terms, so I will have almost every scenario covered. I know from personal experience that if I have a system that contains big gaps in reach, then I get a bit frustrated. I may not use a telezoom all that often, but when I want to, then I want to (if that makes sense?). Sure, a 25mm f1.4, or an 18mm f1.8 would be lovely - but I already have them covered with the 12-50mm kit lens. What I don't have, at the moment, is extra telephoto coverage - which the 40-150mm will give me in spades.

Second, despite it 'only' being a kit lens, and 'only' being f4/5.6, and 'only' being made of plastic, by all accounts the IQ of the lens is pretty amazing. It's 'better' optically than it has any right to be for a cheap plastic lens (although the lens elements are glass, and it does use an ED lens for image correction), and as long as you isolate your subject effectively from the background, the bokeh can be very pleasing. No, it's not a low-light lens. But the OM-D EM-5 Mk2 has very good high ISO performance, and one of the best (if not the best) image stabilization systems on the planet, so even at the telephoto end of the zoom range in lowish light, good sharp images should be achievable. But it is what it is.

And third, it's cheap :-)

So that will be my 'kit' for a while. The Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mk2 with 12-50mm and 40-150mm kit lenses, HLD-8 battery/portrait grip, spare batteries and SD cards. While I'm in Christchurch next week getting the HLD-8, I may have a look at camera bags to keep it all in. The ThinkTank Mirrorless Mover 30 looks good, but I may also just keep using my Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home for it. It does look a bit lost in there at the moment, but adding the grip and another lens might just help with that. If I get a new bag, I will definitely do a post on what I got and why.

What's missing from the above (apart from the fast primes)? Well, if I'm going to use it to shoot weddings seriously then I will need another body as back-up, a larger flash (the flash supplied is cute, but not really for serious work), and then yes - some of those fast primes. Or maybe even the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens? Now that would be sweet.