Fotodiox Pro, All Metal Black Camera Hand Grip for Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four-Thirds Digital Camera with Battery Access

I wanted a hand grip for my new E-M5 Mk2 but refused to pay the silly prices Olympus were asking for their grips, so with a bit of searching found this one from Fotodiox. I live in the UK and this item isn't available over here so duly ordered through Amazon.com and am pleased to report the part arrived a few days earlier than predicted .. top marks to Amazon/Fotodiox/US Postal service!As for the grip itself, it is manufactured to a high quality, the fit onto the camera is good and everything is accessible (ie battery compartement, rear screen, card slot) as they should be. Attachment is via a thumbwheel on the bottom which presents no problems, and once on the grip is very secure. The finish looks to be a painted speckle finish which closely matches that of the E-M5, and the grip looks good once attached to the camera.This grip has transformed the handling of the E-M5 Mk2; the new grip design Olympus put on the camera body is already much better then the Mk1 but this additional grip now makes the camera feel very secure and handling larger lenses like the 70-300mm is much better.The only very small niggles I have are that the grip itself extends a just little too far forwards for my liking, and there isn't a soft covering (as on the body of the camera) which makes the grip feel hard ... that said these really are very minor and do not detract from the overall quality of the grip.Even when taking into account the costs for shipping and customs duties into the UK this grip is way cheaper than the Olympus equivalent (approximately 40% the cost of the Olympus grip), so taking this and all the other factors into account the 5 star rating is truly deserved.Update: after having the grip attached for the last couple of weeks took it off the other day and noticed that the small rib on the front of the grip had rubbed against the paint of the camera and made a small mark. Not a big problem, but to stop it getting any worse put a small piece of electrical tape on the inside of the rib to protect the paint from the metal rubbing against it.Now I've used the grip 'in anger' for a while I'm even more pleased with my purchase, if I could give 5+ stars I would!

This is a great product. Very solid, easy to instal, and it gives just enough extra grip. An extra grip is not needed for the pancake or the prime lenses, but a grip is needed for the bigger zoom and pro-lenses. This grip is perfect to use with the bigger lenses. It does not add substantially more weight or size. It can still fit in my coat pocket. It looks and feels great. It mounts secure, and you can use a tripod with it. I would not mount camera strap to the tripod threading as I don't have that much confidence in the grip. I do tighten the grip periodically and it can come loose. You can access the battery and SD card, but it does require a little fiddling. Overall this is really outstanding and well worth the cost.

I recently traded down from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera (yes, I know, I did it backwards. It's a long story). When I first opened the box and held it my first thought was that it was far too small to hold comfortably and that I should probably get a grip for it. The only two grips for the E-M10 on the market (currently) are this and the Olympus brand grip. I spent a week going back and forth about which one to buy; the price of the Fotodiox was appealing, but the Olympus has a texture that matches the body of the camera and might feel better than a metal grip. Finally I took a chance on the Fotodiox and I couldn't be happier so far (granted, it's only been on the camera about 2 hours).The fit is superb, there's almost no space between the grip and the camera. It's very slim in the right places, and adds just the right amount of bulk where you would normally grip the camera. The cutout on the bottom is a no-brainer, I'm not sure why Olympus went to the trouble of making some sort of quick release mechanism when it's so easy to simply cut an area out of the bottom for battery/memory card access. The all-metal construction is confidence-inspiring, and it has a pleasing texture that adds an extra bit of grip. The aesthetics are 99% as good as the Olympus brand grip could be, so if you're worried about the texture of the grip clashing with the texture of the camera body rest assured, it still looks quite handsome even with the grip.tl;dr, do yourself a favor and save $25 bucks and get this instead of the Olympus brand. I can't imagine it being any better than this one.