So I finally pulled the trigger on the R5 Mark II and my bank account is crying a little bit lol. Im based in Seattle and have a big wedding shoot coming up in late September so I need to get this rig ready fast. Ive got about 800 bucks left in the budget for extras before my wife kills me.

I spent all night looking at memory cards and honestly Im more confused than when I started. People keep saying the ProGrade Cobalt is the gold standard for the high bitrates but then I see others saying the Lexar Gold series works just as well for half the price and wont overheat as much during 8k video. I mostly do stills but I want to be able to use the pre-continuous shooting mode without the camera choking.

Also the battery situation is super annoying because I have like six of the older LP-E6NH batteries from my R6 and I heard they wont let you use the neural network upscaling or the faster burst modes? That feels like a huge letdown if I have to drop another 300 on just batteries. Aside from the obvious cards and power what are you guys actually finding essential for this specific body? Like is the cooling grip actually worth it if Im not shooting long video clips or should I just stick to a basic L-bracket?