GH3 Battery Grip For Only $70 & It’s Awesome!
GH3 With Grip Attached
I love it when you find a great deal. I love it even more when it’s also a great product! That happened when I found this GH3 battery grip on eBay. I usually have low expectations when I find after market products and no offense but some of the Chinese stuff can be iffy, but not all the time. In fact lately I’ve bought and used several very good products from China, and this one is a winner!
If you have a GH4 this inexpensive grip doesn’t work with it unfortunately. You will get errors and the camera will lock up. I think it has a lot to do with the way the GH4 is designed to work with the YAGH external device.
I wanted a battery grip for my GH3, but the Panasonic version is ridiculously expensive at $200 so I went looking around, and found this DSTE DMW-BGGH3 Battery Grip For Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 Camera on eBay, and figured I would give it a try. It was only $71 with free shipping. When It arrived I was surprised how nice it looked and felt. I never held the Panasonic version before, so I don’t have a comparison, but the quality seems very good on this one.
GH3 Grip Fits Nice And Tight
I attached it to the GH3, and it fits like a glove! All the functions work just as they should. How cool is that! So far I’m very pleased with it. This is over half the price of the Panasonic. Great deal!
For me a battery grip is for stills shooting. I don’t need a grip for video capture. I love my GH3, and being able to get a little more of the camera to hold on to is a good thing especially in the portrait position. Having the AF/AE Lock, dial and trigger on the grip is also very helpful. You can have onr battery in the body and one in the grip giving you more power than you could use in a day since the GH3 batteries are very good. I prefer to just have one in the grip. If the battery in the camera dies you’ll need to take the grip off to change it. The Panasonic version is splash/dust proof. however the DSTE doesn’t have any seals on the battery door or around the base that connects to the camera.
The grip has a rubber coating where it makes contact with your hand to make it less slippery and it feels just like the GH3 coating. I do wish the tripod mount wasn’t offset but that’s not a deal breaker. All around this grip is a winner at an amazing price, and I’m really happy with the look and feel. I haven’t taken it off yet. It’s funny because the one thing I like the most about the GH3 is the size of the camera, and how portable and light it is. The grip does make it bigger but in a good way that give the GH3 a real pro feel to it.
Only negative I can find is it’s not weather sealed. Keep that in mind since the GH3 is.
GH3 Grip Buttons
Key features.
- Price
- Fits Like A Glove
- Feels good in the hand
- Lots of functions buttons for vertical shooting
- Did I mention the price?
Bummer.
- Doesn’t work with the GH4
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Filed in: DSLR • Equipment Reviews • GH3
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Is there a removable rubber cap on the camera bottom to protect all those electronic contacts?
Yes. The rubber cap pops off on the GH3 where the multi pin inputs are. The grip also comes with a cap to cover the pins. Hard part is not loosing either one!
I found the best grip’s secret! =)
You can place the two caps into the two forms dug into the grip itself! (on the right part on the second photo of your article)
And nice website by the way!
I’m wondering if I will buy the GH4… I also have the super set of pana zoom lens : 7-14mm 12-35mm & 35-100mm but don’t have a good computer (an “old” 2010 MacbookPro…) to edit the GH4’s 4K…
It’s already slow with the GH3’s videos!
DSTE stuff is good. I purchased batteries from aliexpress.com but now I find their items in rarity
Hi, love your blog and discovered it because of this post. I ended up buying this DSTE Battery grip and assumed that because it appears to be an exact copy of the Panasonic version that it would be compatible with both the GH3 and the new GH4. The Panasonic grip is definitely compatible with both.
I just received my new GH4 (my GH3 was stolen) and I quickly attached this DSTE grip to it and unfortunately discovered that it is not compatible with the GH4. If there is a battery in the grip, the GH4 will not power on. I only get the flashing green light on the GH4 and a clicking noise. I contacted the merchant where I purchased the grip (in China) and they confirmed that it only works with the GH3.
I’m curious to find out if you have had the same experience with this grip (I see that you received your GH4 as well). Please let me know!
Thanks for the review on the grip, and the warning that it is not compatible with the GH4. I just ordered a GH4 and was thinking about one of these grips. Even though it will work on my GH3, I will hold off and hope that DSTE makes a version that is compatible with both.
It’s a really nice grip. I was pretty bummed when it didn’t work. Know anyone that wants a GH3 grip? Ha! Like you I hope DSTE makes one for the GH4 but I think it wont be very soon.
I almost bought the DSTE battery grip for my GH3, but the GH3 batteries last such a long time that I never got around to it. Does the GH4 consumer more battery power? Mine arrives on Thursday!
Hi Dave, You are gonna LOVE your GH4; can’t get enough of mine. From a couple of months experience with it now, I must say the battery life is fairly similar to the GH3. I have noticed that when shooting stuff in 4K, the battery definitely does not last as long but that would be expected because of the greater workload the image processor etc are doing. I still would invest in a battery grip (Panasonic seems to be our only choice right now) because you could literally shoot almost continuously for a day without worrying about power! Hope this helps!
The battery life on my GH2 was very short, so the GH3 battery life has spoiled me. In addition to the Panasonic battery, I have 3 third party batteries. The third party batteries show up on the GH3’s level meter. I never need more than 2 batteries over the course of one day’s shoot, so a battery grip doesn’t seem as crucial. However, I think the extra mass would make the camera a bit more ergonomic. Maybe DSTE will update their grip to work with the GH4.