The elusive Canon GR-E2 grip found!
For the past week since I bought the EOS-1v, I've been scouring the 'net, trying to find the GR-E2 grip for it (the non-power-booster grip). The reason is simple: the power booster is crazy heavy and bulky. I can barely fit the EOS-1v into my Orion photo pack with the PB-E2 on, and the camera is damn heavy too! I don't need 10fps or hours of continuous operation since I'm not a professional photographer, so it just doesn't make sense for me to deal with all the extra weight and bulk of the PB-E2. So, for day to day usage, I wanted to use the GR-E2, which substantially decreases both the weight and the bulk of the EOS-1v.
Problem is, I was coming up with nothing online. No photo store had it in stock, and when I started bidding on eBay for one, it ended up selling for $60, which is exactly the retail price for a new one! I called up Calumet Photo to have them special order it, but they said it might take several months for me to get one. So I kept going to every camera store I could find in the San Francisco area looking for a used one.
Finally, I went to Keeble and Schuchat Photography in Palo Alto. Despite the fact that I had called ahead and they had told me they had none around, when I got there I discovered that they in fact had TWO! And they would sell me one for just $20, 1/3 of the retail cost. It looks brand new, too! Needless to say, I was quite happy to buy it. So finally I had obtained the elusive GR-E2 grip. :-)
The camera is so much more manageable now. It's kind of scary though that nobody had this grip in stock, not even any online merchants, and that they thought the wait to special order it would be over a month! It's pretty clear now that film cameras really are dead, and if you can't find what you need on the used market you probably won't be able to get it anymore. Time to grab all the accessories you need for those film cameras before they all disappear!
Problem is, I was coming up with nothing online. No photo store had it in stock, and when I started bidding on eBay for one, it ended up selling for $60, which is exactly the retail price for a new one! I called up Calumet Photo to have them special order it, but they said it might take several months for me to get one. So I kept going to every camera store I could find in the San Francisco area looking for a used one.
Finally, I went to Keeble and Schuchat Photography in Palo Alto. Despite the fact that I had called ahead and they had told me they had none around, when I got there I discovered that they in fact had TWO! And they would sell me one for just $20, 1/3 of the retail cost. It looks brand new, too! Needless to say, I was quite happy to buy it. So finally I had obtained the elusive GR-E2 grip. :-)
The camera is so much more manageable now. It's kind of scary though that nobody had this grip in stock, not even any online merchants, and that they thought the wait to special order it would be over a month! It's pretty clear now that film cameras really are dead, and if you can't find what you need on the used market you probably won't be able to get it anymore. Time to grab all the accessories you need for those film cameras before they all disappear!
posted by Chris at 10:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home