Are you sure you're not pressing the depth of field preview button?

Hi there!

Thanks for all the great advice. I have tested it a few different ways and have yet to experience the same issue as I did earlier. It seems that I must have been pushing a live view button or something else, as it always happened in portrait mode. I doubt it was the connections as it is brand new.

To be clear on the issue, the entire viewfinder went dark, and I had to turn the camera off and on for it to work again.

I always find that I switch modes when moving the camera to portrait simply because of the ergonomics of the camera. I like the d7000 but the dial rubs against my hand too often, or buttons accidentally get pushed. This never happens on a larger camera.

Thanks again for all your input!!

To repeat DutchNikon's comment, the viewfinder should never "go dark" unless the things happen that he mentioned

Srry, forgot 3 other possibilities..

1) If you (accidently) push the "LiveView" button, thenm the mirror also goes up, and the viewfinder is substuted by the LCD ..
2) If you (accidently) switch to "Film Mode"for taking movies, then the same thing happens as mentioned for 1) ..
3) You switched on the Mup ( mirror up) selection, then the mirror swings up at depressing the release button the first time, and a pic is taken at pressing it for the second time, in between those, the mirror stays "up"and hence the viewfinder is dark..

The first 2 easely happen when switching to "Portrait" orientation when the grip was attached to the camera due to the position of the liveview/ movie mode button/switch, because for some ppl the button presses against the forehead..

The viewfinder on all Nikon DSLRs go slightly dark when there is no battery installed. Sounds like there is a bad connection between the grip and the camera. Make sure it is on tight, and if that does not work exchange the grip for a new one.

To repeat DutchNikon's comment, the viewfinder should never "go dark" unless the things happen that he mentioned. Are you talking about the meter settings in green LCD letters underneath the field of view: Shutter Speed, F stop; exposure; ISO???

If so, the length of time metering stays active can be adjusted in settings.

Custom Settings Menu > Timers/AE Lock > Auto Meter-off Delay

Hope this helps.

Try using some contact cleaner on the grip electrical connectors. Very sparingly. Only a light touch... just make certain no corrosion or dirt is on the contacts. Intermittent problems are in many cases simply poor electrical connections.

Could be a loose connection or a bad grip. I had this happen with an after market grip on my D700, the mirror would stick because there was something wrong with the grip.

You should try it with a battery in both camera and grip and see how it fares. I believe there is a setting to tell the camera which battery to use first, so if you put one battery in the camera and another in the grip, then tell the camera to use the grip first, you won't have to charge the battery in camera very often.

Are you sure you do not push any of the buttons on the grip, or camera ?

The Viewfinder should only go dark when :
- The mirror goes up, because you take a picture
- The aperture closes because you push a preview button ( normally the middle button on the right side of the lens mount..)
- Something moves through the field of view
- You look into the viewfinder on an angle.

But the D7000 ( or any other nikon dslr) does not ahave an electronic viewfinder, so it does not go dark in any other situation i can think of...

I recently purchased an mb-d11 purely for the added weight for my d7000..it really doesn't do much else :) anywho, I noticed while I was out shooting, the d7000's viewfinder would randomly go dark. I'd have to shut off the power and restart to get it going again. Simple fix, but annoying.

The battery was in the grip chamber. The d7000 chamber was empty. A genuine enel15 was used.

Any idea what it is? I never had this problem before adding the grip. Perhaps I'll try the battery in the camera chamber and see if theres a problem there. Just wanted to avoid taking off the grip every time to change the battery.