Helium Grip for Leica Q
Mention to most people that you spent $500 on a grip for a camera and they would call you nuts. When we bought our Leica Q2’s a few years ago we knew we wanted a grip. Although the Leica Q2 feels good in the hands, it always felt like something was missing in terms of the grip ability.
$300 later and we bought the one that Leica sold. Although the grip did its purpose there are a couple things wrong with it. First, you have to unscrew the grip anytime you wanted to charge the battery or needing to remove the SD card. Although this is not a huge deal and only takes a few moments it was still a pain at times. The second problem was the grip did not come with a thumb pad. Meaning if you wanted this you needed to also purchase a separate one that would take up the hotshoe. Again, not a huge problem most of the time but I would often times find myself making sure the thumb grip was not coming out. Just the thought of it on long travel days always was something in the back of my mind. Finally, a third problem that I never knew was a problem and in most cases is not a problem, until it becomes a $6,000 problem is that if in the rare event your Leica gets stolen or misplaced you have no way of tracking it. Again, not something you ever want happening but should it happen it would be a nice way to track the device.
So, we spent $600 on a thumb grip and a hand grip for both our Leica Q2’s. However we were still missing the problem with Number 3. No tracking, no protection.
Then, out of nowhere, a Youtube video dropped from none other than Hugh Brownstone. If you don’t know Hugh, he is amongst the best YouTubers in the camera world. Hugh, along with his business partner Ed Palisoc created something that checked all the boxes for Leica Q owners. A grip that incorporated the beefier part for your hand, an option and functional thumb grip and a clever slot that allows you to place an Apple AirTag into the grip that, once screwed down is extremely difficult to remove without the proper tools.
Now the only downside… If you can call it a downside. A price of $500. When spending $6k on a camera it seems simple to purchase a $500 accessory. But let’s be honest. Grips are not a sexy accessory. Nothing really fun about them so $500 is a big pill to swallow especially after spending over $1,000 on the same things that are now more or less useless. Fast forward though, and here we are. 2 HE2 grips. One in black and one is beautiful Silver to go along with Kristan’s Ghost Edition of her Leica.
Having now had the ability to use these grips and even traveling with them we feel that we can give a totally unbiased opinion. We spent full price on these and neither Ed nor Hugh have given us anything in exchange for this review.
The Grip
The grip itself is pretty perfect. My wife and I both share a medium size hand and the grip fits perfectly in both our hands. Handling the camera for long periods of times produces no hotspots. The entire trip is perfectly weighted and allows the Q2’s to stand on their own without falling over. Something the Leica versions did not do.
The Thumb Grip
From day one, we installed the thumb grip. Perfectly integrated into the handle there is nothing extra to mess with. The thumb grip is small and doesn’t stick out much but is perfectly in the position you need it to be to rest your thumb.
Accessability
I love having the ability to charge batteries and remove the SD card without removing the grip. This is especially important because the screen to put it on is a specialized head to stop theives from gaining access to the AirTag. This little difference is huge in terms of being able to quickly change batteries or not having something else to remove or lose while on vacation.
AirTag/Tracking
I love getting a notice when I walk away from my camera. Knowing that should something happen I have an ability to track the cameras is so freeing. It seems weird but also not. But when you spend $6k on a camera you want to know it is safe. We have seen too many YouTube videos of photographers losing their gear to prying hands and having this little peace of mind is huge.
I know it is a privilege to spend $500 on a grip for a $6k camera but if you shoot Leica you understand this. We photograph for a living and we work hard and we spend hard. We don’t spend money on many other things. For us we would rather have a nice camera and a trip instead of a TV. For us, the peace of mind, the usability and the functionality of the HE grip was well with the amount of money we spent. The memories, the adventures that our Leica’s go on provide us with beautiful images in our home. It provides us with memories in the yearly books we create. For us, a camera is just as much part of us as the clothes we wear and the Helium Grip is just as much of a match to the Leica Q2 as the Leica Q2 is to us. Simplicity and perfection.
Customer Service
I want to end on this. Even if a product is amazing, if the customer service is sub par you may feel regret or guilt. I can remember several times where a delicious meal was ruined by poor customer service. Or a seemingly great product was ruined by the rude sales person. Ed spends so much of his time in the Discord server answering questions and ensuring that each HE customer is taken care of. We had a couple issues arrive with shipping of our grips and Ed, without hesitation did everything he could to make it right. Again, no fault of his, yet he did everything he could to fix it and make it right. Service like this does not naturally to everyone. Ed however, is in the design and the service industry. Something you don’t see very often.
If you are looking for a grip for your Leica Q2, Q3, M11 or possibly even other cameras check out https://www.heliumlab.design
