where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
Hi.
I was looking at the Battery Grip for my D7000 but am kind of put off by the price.
Am I right in thinking this is essentially a near £300 lump of plastic that does NOT include a battery? This is just a chassis to hold a near £50 nikon rechargable or AA disposables?
You got it. Welcome to the world of Nikon! If they are not out already, I would think you'll find non Nikon versions being sold on eBay shortly. I prefer the quality of the real stuff, but the after market options do represent great value for money and normally work pretty well in my experience. You pays your money, you takes your choice. Just be greatful you're not buying the MB-D10 for the D700. £250 for the grip, £100 for the different battery (if you want to take advantage of the increased performance), £120 ish for the charger to charge the new battery & £30 for the battery grip door. That little set ups going to cost you a cool £500!
I have the MB-D10 for the D700. It was pricey, but you don't have to go for the bigger battery to get the improved performance. Just use 8 rechargeables and you are set. I can shoot several hundred frames and have the grip still showing full power. I honestly have no idea what the limit is, but it would be into the thousands somewhere. The rechargeables also give it the full 8 fps that the camera can manage.
The grip does give the camera a completely different feel and really makes it balance well with heavier lenses. Not sure about the MB-D11, but the MB-D10 gives you the shutter release, both front and rear control dials, AE button and the toggle button. It really is the full functionality of the standard grip, so a lot more than "just a battery holder". I have no regrets for spending the extra money to get it.
It's one of those purchases that you'll either be openly ridiculed for or secretly envied for by your Nikon shooting friends. I recently bought the grip for my D7000 and since I've used it I feel that I now cannot go without it. Took it off recently and the camera felt like it's been cut in half with nowhere for the 4th and pinkie fingers to go. Put it back on ASAP.
I was waiting to see if Zeikos would come out with a knockoff but got impatient. Sure, I guess you could get a decent point and shoot or lens with the same money so if you buy it you have to feel strongly about it. Otherwise buyers remorse will soon set in. It gives the D7000 a more substantial feel. I honestly think I'm taking better pictures with it because I can support the camera better with the palm of my left hand. It also has the multi-directional dial that duplicates the Multi-selector on the back of the camera, AE-L and AF-L button, in addition to the front and rear control dials. Also, that lump of plastic is molded around magnesium alloy. No regrets here...if you get it just make sure your camera bag has the space.
The grip is about $240 US and the battery about $60 US. Are prices over there that much higher?? ($300 US ~ £189 ??)
You'd think they would give you a battery with the grip ?...the cheapest I've seen it in the UK is £300 ($477)
Still think the D400 will have an inbuilt grip...you read it here first, even if it is wrong lol.
I paid 89.90 € for a spare (original) battery and 225 € for the MB-D11 which I should receive by tomorrow. Of course new products are expensive at first, I'm sure the price of D7000 itself will drop in 6 months.
D80/D90's grip is 160 € now, it used to be more expensive.
perminna said:
I paid 89.90 € for a spare (original) battery and 225 € for the MB-D11 which I should receive by tomorrow. Of course new products are expensive at first, I'm sure the price of D7000 itself will drop in 6 months.D80/D90's grip is 160 € now, it used to be more expensive.
Umm, the D80 was introduced in 2006, the D90 in 2008 so of course the battery grips are cheaper now. The D7000 is still hard to find so you probably shouldn't expect a great price decrease within this year. I do think the battery grip should have included the EN-EL15 battery but then the price would have been more expensive anyway. That seems to be the Nikon way.
Whats the battery config on this? One (or two) Nikon battery or 8 AA?
And how do the 8 AAs compare in power to the Nikons?
I looked at the Nikon site... no details, just a pic
You can also go off market with the battery grips, as it's pretty much save, although I wouldn't recommend going off market with the battery.
You can also go off market with the battery grips, as it's pretty much save, although I wouldn't recommend going off market with the battery.
@ OnTheBandwagon - the D7000 grip comes with 2 inserts. One insert is made to hold the Nikon EN-EL15 battery, the other insert is made to hold 6 AA batteries. I guess the D700 uses 8 AA batteries as JorPet stated above. Whichever insert you're not using you can store in the little pouch that Nikon sends with the unit. So far I've only used lithium AA batteries as I don't yet have a spare EN-EL15.
In the Nikon D7000 menu you can tell the camera which battery set you want to use first before it automatically switches over to the next battery set. I have not noticed any power deficits with the AA batteries and I do enjoy not having to charge the Nikon battery so often. I'll admit that it WILL blow through some AA batteries so the best thing might be to eventually get rechargeable AAs or another EN-EL15.
Can anyone confirm whether or not the MB-D11 with AA batteries increases the Continuous High shooting rate? I swear I saw something that said it bumped it up to 7fps even though Nikon doesn't advertise it but I haven't been able to verify it.
perminna said:
Isn't that what I said?
Sort of...I was just clearing up any idea that there might be a nice price decrease so soon for the battery packs being that the camera itself is still new and still in a limited supply vs. demand phase. Just wanted to point out the fact the those previous cameras (and battery packs) are now almost 5 years and 3 years old now and the D7K is barely 3-4 months old.
That said, I have already noticed a $10 (USD) drop in price already from what I paid for the D7K grip. C'est la vie.
jonnyapple said:
Can anyone confirm whether or not the MB-D11 with AA batteries increases the Continuous High shooting rate? I swear I saw something that said it bumped it up to 7fps even though Nikon doesn't advertise it but I haven't been able to verify it.
There were some sporadic reports that CH speed increased, but its not true.
The grip is simply a battery and grip.
So I've wanted this grip for awhile but had to hold off buying it as I needed to save money for a trip.
Been trying to budget into it and was originally going to buy just the spare battery but yesterday I decided what is the point in saving up money on the trip when I'd probably wish I had bought the grip.
So dropped 300$ on grip + spare battery and more SD cards. Also had to rebuy the ML-L3. It's a great little remote, problem is I keep losing it, hopefully third time is a charm.
All I know is, my pinky will love having a bigger grip again! Just wish the MB-D11 was like the MB-D80. Don't care that it doesn't add FPS but with the MB-D80 I could swap batteries without having to take the grip off.
jonnyapple said:
Can anyone confirm whether or not the MB-D11 with AA batteries increases the Continuous High shooting rate? I swear I saw something that said it bumped it up to 7fps even though Nikon doesn't advertise it but I haven't been able to verify it.
I read that on another site as well.
krevlingoodspeed said:
All I know is, my pinky will love having a bigger grip again! Just wish the MB-D11 was like the MB-D80. Don't care that it doesn't add FPS but with the MB-D80 I could swap batteries without having to take the grip off.
I almost never shoot verticals, so it never occured to me to get a grip. But, I got an N90s that came with the MB-10 grip, and I do like how a larger body feels in my hands when shooting. I may have to get the grip for my D7000, since the body is kinda smallish in my hands. Too bad about the battery design. Has anyone personally confirmed the FPS thing?
gelu88 said:
There were some sporadic reports that CH speed increased, but its not true.The grip is simply a battery and grip.
gelu, have you tried it yourself, then? I'm probably going to wait for zeikos to come out with one in any case. I was impressed with the zeikos D90 grip I had.
perminna said:
I paid 89.90 € for a spare (original) battery and 225 € for the MB-D11 which I should receive by tomorrow. Of course new products are expensive at first, I'm sure the price of D7000 itself will drop in 6 months.
Have to disagree re: the price drop. While I'm sure the prices will come down eventually, I think your 6 month estimate's a bit too optimistic. Right now, demand far outstrips the supply, and I don't think the clock starts ticking on a price drop 'til the supply and the demand reach some sort of parity. Just my $.02 worth.
I agree with the post above. The MB-D80s price remained the same for a very long time, several years in fact. I think last year the price went down, but at that point the grip was four years old!
PB PM: Good point; forgot when I posted this that the MB-D80 had originally been introduced for the D80. So if they do the same again (i.e. it remains compatible with the theoretical 7100, or can be used on another forthcoming camera, say the 5000 or 300/s replacement), you're probably looking at longer still.
@ jonnyapple and studio, I've just finished running my own unofficial test for frames per second using the EN-EL15 battery along with 6 new AA Duracell batteries in the battery pack (I don't have a second EN-EL15 yet).
My settings:
Role played by card in Slot 2: Overflow
Image Quality: JPEG Normal
Image Size: Small
AF - C
Shutter priority: speed 1/1600 sec
I used my AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens (@ f/1.8) in a well lit room aimed so that a brightly lit lamp was in the field of view.
To sum it up I'll say the results were as advertised. With the EN-EL15 alone (battery pack empty) I got 6 frames per second. With the fresh Duracells in the battery pack I actually got between 5 FPS and 6 FPS. In other words the shutter speed was more sporadic with slowing and speeding up. I don't have a battery tester so I don't really know if the batteries were at 100% even though they were new.
Aside from all of that, I don't think the system was designed to pull power from both battery sets at the same time anyway since the menu calls for you to decide which battery set you want to use first before moving on to the 2nd battery set. After seeing the above results I've decided I will eventually get a 2nd En-EL15 for the battery pack.
I hope all of this helps.
Rx
Rx4Photo said:
Aside from all of that, I don't think the system was designed to pull power from both battery sets at the same time anyway since the menu calls for you to decide which battery set you want to use first before moving on to the 2nd battery set.
Cool! Thanks for performing that test for us, Rx! Yeah, I was initially thinking, "more current, more faster," but I guess it's not designed to pull current from both.
I pulled out my N90s this evening and shot some frames of Tri-X with its MB-10 grip attached (which I've never shot with before). I see what you guys mean about a place for your pinky finger. Definitely feels better to shoot with more camera to hold onto. Well, here goes another $300 order from B+H. Thanks for "making" me buy more Nikon stuff, fellow NR members!
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