One week with the HLD3

That's how long I have had it attached to my E300.

The positives.

It makes the camera so much more comfortable to hold. My little finger doesn't fall off anymore!!

The camera feels nicely balanced with the 50-200 on it.

The camera now has a bit extra weight which gives it a nicer stability when handholding the camera.

Attaching the camera strap between the right hand lug on the camera and the lug on the grip makes the camera a lot more comfortable to use. I used to always get the strap in the way of the viewfinder before this!!

The Negatives

I have given up trying to use the portrait grip - what use is it without having the AF point selector or a control wheel. It is actually easier to just do as I always did and turn the camera round , this way I still have full control over the thing without having to shift my hands around!!

So there we go - a really good addition to the E300 but one which could have been so much better with the duplication of three controls - the control wheel, AF point selector and the AE lock. I'd have gladly paid an extra £50-60 to have these controls.

One other thing, lots of people had expressed they felt the C-AF speed was increased by having the two batteries installed - it doesn't!!!

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and I wish you all a happy new year.

Stephen.

--
Olympus E300, HLD-3, 14-54, 50, 50-200, FL36, Centon ringflash!!!
http://www.notofthisearth.co.uk

I am disappointed you did not see any AF improvements with the attachment; I would buy one for that improvement.

Did you notice any improvement in Continuous AF and tracking or any particular improvement in battery life?

Thanks for any comments.

I have been using the HLD3 for some time now and although I have not tested it, it does seem to focus much faster. But that may be psychological more than anything. I have read other posters claiming faster focusing, especially when using the HLD3 with two batteries..

As for battery life, I always have two batteries loaded in the HLD3 and for my casual shooting with the occasional frenzy (like shooting my grandson's first christmas program) they just seem to go on and on without the battery warning coming on. BTW this has been three weeks of casual shooting. That said, I should recharge them both soon before another frenzied occasion presents itself.

I agree that the additional weight gives the camera a lot of stability. I don't miss the wheels when using the vertical button although I must say that the button itself does not have the sure-footedness of the regular shutter button. It seems to require more pressure that somehow doesn't feel centered. It's like I have to move my finger all over the button to get the shutterto release .

I also agree that putting the strap in the vertical mode works very well to get it out of the way of picture taking. However, when you take vertical shots, then the strap tends to get in the way.

Hope this is useful.
--
Junbo

The negative I see is they put the remote release in a dumb place, right under my hand so that cap digs into it. Might have to file that thing off as I'll probably never use it.

I do have to say it balances SO much better with the non-kit lenses that are heavier.
--

Stacey

notofthisearth said:

One other thing, lots of people had expressed they felt the C-AF
speed was increased by having the two batteries installed - it
doesn't!!!

Click to expand...

Ah..... the power of belief .... 'I want it to be so, therefore it must be'

Too true!!!

That's why walkers new and improved flavour crisps really do taste different!!!!
--
Olympus E300, HLD-3, 14-54, 50, 50-200, FL36, Centon ringflash!!!
http://www.notofthisearth.co.uk

I've had my E-300 since August as new, and the battery works well enough that I've never seen the "half life" for the battery yet. I recently just did a photo shoot where I shot over 500 photos in 5 hrs with the FL20 and the onboard flash in use for every shot. The information screen was always on and every shot set up for review afterwards, AF in full use, and it still showed a full battery at the end of the night. Granted, I had charged the battery the night before the shoot. But having said that, I can't see the need to have grip just for the extra battery life, as I could do without the added weight for a long haul like that.

I will get an additional batter just to be on the safe side for a future shoot.

--
Zalllon
http://flickr.com/photos/zalllon/page2/

'It is not enough that I succeed -- others must fail.' - Genghis Khan

All the claims I've seen for increased auto-focus speed were in connection to the HLD-2 battery grip for the E-1. In that case, the claims are quite true. The much more powerful (3400mAh) BLL-1 battery turns the E-1 into a decent sports camera.
--
Rob
-------------------
E-1, 14-54, 5O-2OO

Zalllon said:

I
recently just did a photo shoot where I shot over 500 photos in 5
hrs with the FL20 and the onboard flash in use for every shot. The
information screen was always on and every shot set up for review
afterwards, AF in full use, and it still showed a full battery at
the end of the night.

Click to expand...

Trust me, your battery was about to give out. You can't go by the indicator.

In fact, while 500 shots is reasonable, I'm suprised you got that far with the flash operating. It must have been working on very little power output.

Basic Wedge said:

All the claims I've seen for increased auto-focus speed were in
connection to the HLD-2 battery grip for the E-1.

Click to expand...

I'm afraid people are also making the same claims now for the E300 grip.

It may be true, but it would appear to be unsubstantiated at the moment.

Harold650 said:

Did you notice any improvement in Continuous AF and tracking or any
particular improvement in battery life?

Thanks for any comments.

Click to expand...

There is no improvement with continuous af tracking, wich work quite fine for me...
Battery life is well improved when using two batteries in the grip...

Some say there is improvement with flash recycle times, but I do not use internal flash as long as I have the FL-36 which generaly recycle quite much faster (and the 14-54 projects a shadow on the edge of the picture on the wide angle.... )

--
Comments are always welcome...
My gear is in my profile...

You're probably right about the power output, as I was using the onboard as flash fill in for the FL-20. The FL-20 went through 3 pairs of AA Duracell rechargeables. Maybe next time I'll get a chance to push to failure, but I myself was ready to be recharged ... LOL.

--
Zalllon
http://flickr.com/photos/zalllon/page2/

'It is not enough that I succeed -- others must fail.' - Genghis Khan

Zalllon said:

You're probably right about the power output, as I was using the
onboard as flash fill in for the FL-20. The FL-20 went through 3
pairs of AA Duracell rechargeables. Maybe next time I'll get a
chance to push to failure, but I myself was ready to be recharged
... LOL.

Click to expand...

I know the feeling! I regularly get about 500+ shots out of an E1 doing all day stuff, but then the battery is on the way out. Its good to know the E300 can indeed go so long on a single one with some fill in though. I'm just guessing here, but it looks to be using less power than the E1 in general.

Cheers

G.