D800 grip battery use

[BLWNHR]

Your comment suggests that you think any 3rd party accessory is guaranteed to have issues. While you may love to bling up your Nikon with other Nikon badged stuff, I would never buy a Nikon UV/CPL/ND filter, Nikon camera bag, Nikon tripod, and Nikon doesn't make wireless triggers, flash modifiers, rapid straps, the list goes on.

And I'm not even talking about lenses yet.

Unfortunately, when it comes down to the details, all the high and mighty turn out not to be using Nikon UV/CPL/ND filter, Nikon camera bags, Nikon tripods either.

So you can go feel good about your bling, while the rest of us choose the best tool for the job, not limited to the badge on the tool.

Wow, someone is getting a bit precious aren't they?!? Thanks for putting words in my mouth too, nothing like people speaking for you...

To correct you on each point:

• I actually said if you bought a genuine product it would (more than likely) not have any problems. Nikon know their camera, and subsequently know how to make an accessory that works without issue. It is in their best interests to do so, they have a brand reputation to uphold. If they had an issue like the one you describe on the genuine part it would be rectified with haste and you could get on with the joy of taking photographs.
• I do not know your professional background, nor how you use your camera, and I am not in the habit of putting words in peoples mouths, so I will speak for myself. I use my gear for professional work about 80% of the time. I need it to work. Every time. Without fail. When it comes to large accessories that fix directly to the camera and interact electronically with the camera I buy genuine. If a third-party grip caused problems with the body Nikon aren't going to help you, nor is the accessory manufacturer more than likely (this is based on the experience of friends who have had aftermarket grips lunch their camera). If a Nikon grip caused problems Nikon are legally obliged to fix it.

Now onto the other comments in that action packed first and second sentence:

• I OWN third-party accessories. Quite a few of them in fact.
• I own a Nikon D700 body, genuine MB-D10 grip and 3 SB-900 strobes. Why SB-900's? And why 3? Because I am usually photographing cars. Cars are big and I need a lot of light. The SB-900 was up there with the most powerful strobe I could buy at the time, it also had the added bonus of working flawlessly with the Nikon creative lighting system. I also own 2 Sigma strobes which have been modified to work the way I need them to. Why Sigma, I bought them when I was on a tight budget. Are they as good as the Nikon's? Absolutely no way. Build quality, light output and user controls are all inferior. But, they were cheap, they've paid for themselves and I still have them.
• Do Nikon even make filters? I prefer my Marumi CPL's, Hoya ND's and Cokin graduated ND's. I will probably be ridiculed for using brand names here so I'll justify this. I've always used Marumi CPL's, they are reasonably priced, thin and work better than any others I've found. I needed an ND8, I was in Camera Exchange in Melbourne and they had a second hand Hoya Pro for $20 so I bought it. As for the Cokin's, I can buy them locally, supporting my bricks & mortar store, so that's what I buy.
• I use a Lowepro camera bag. It's big, it's heavy, it's strong and I've never had a Lowepro bag fail me.
• For much the same reason as the Loewpro bag I own a Manfrotto tripod and monopod. Once again, they're big, they're strong and have never failed me.
• I use CyberSync flash triggers. I will almost certainly cop flack for this, but hear me out. Nikon CLS is not the best when used in bright sunlight, or the strobes are a long way away. I owned Cactus triggers, they were unreliable and poorly made. I didn't need TTL so I bought the CyberSync's based on the recommendation of a fellow professional. I photographed 180 couples in 40 minutes at a function last year and they didn't fail once. Worth their weight in gold.
• For modifiers I have some made out of Barbecue Shapes boxes, some made out of drinking straws and others made by Honl. I used to use very cheap gels and velcro purchased from a shop who's name cannot be mentioned on this forum, but when all my gear was stolen in September 2010 the insurance company decided to replace them with Honl straps and gels. The straps I actually find brilliant and I would buy them again, even though they are hideously overpriced.
• Rapid straps, never used them. My camera came with a strap, I wrap it around my hand and away I go.

Lenses are a fun one, 75% of my lens collection is Nikon with the remaining 25% being Sigma. I'm not going to waste any time justifying my decisions here, other than to say I've owned Sigma, Tamron and Nikon lenses. Each have their place and the ones I use now work for me after many years of trial and error.

Your second-to-last line probably irritates me the most. You have made the gross assumption that I have bought up big on expensive gear and sit back and troll the forums. This simply couldn't be further from the truth. I have worked with a lot of professional photographers over the years, most of them better than me, and probably even better than you too. I know what gear they use, hell I've used it! This helped me end up with the gear I have today. But then, you sit back in your ivory tower and hurl judgement, that's fine, I'll get on with the business of taking photographs.

If you can see past your judgement and rage you will see I too choose the best tool for the job. One thing I do consider vital is reliability and confidence that a tool will do it's job again and again.

After all that I still stand by my statement of, if you can afford many thousands of dollars for a camera body you could probably save a little longer and spend the $200 extra to buy the genuine battery grip and rest easy in the knowledge it will always work.

On a side note, if we all bought D4's we wouldn't need to have this discussion!

[reaction]

This thread is about determining whether the 3rd party grip is faulty or whether I have a bad copy. You are both answering with 'buy the Nikon grip' which is not helpful at all. It serves no purpose unless you think the rest of us on this thread didn't know there was a Nikon product for sale. To you it is obvious the problem that it is a 3rd party grip.

If I said a Nikon grip didn't work with various battery placements, what would you have said? Most likely you would explain your own experience with the grip and whether the various battery placements had issues. Ie what everyone else has chimed in with.

But as soon as "3rd party" comes into play it's not longer appropriate to discuss experiences but the answer just becomes "Buy Nikon"?

As for "product that has little or no recorded problems", there's little chance of recording problems with products if every 3rd party thread is hijacked with "Buy Nikon" eh?

You say I'm skimping because I won't spend $x because I don't need a magnesium waterproof grip. I think I'd be a bigger fool spending money on features I don't need. Skimping is buying a poor filter for a good lens. I don't see how the brand of my grip will affect the quality of my pictures.

Nor do I see how whether I'm the best or worst photographer in the world has any bearing on my right to ask whether behavior on a 3rd party grip is by design or not.

[I @ M]

If I said a Nikon grip didn't work with various battery placements, what would you have said?

Very very similar to that which I said quite a few posts ago.
That would have been to contact Nikon and tell them that you were having problems with a battery grip. They would have said "sure, send the grip into us and we will have a look at it under warranty".
If the grip proved fine then I am sure that you would have then asked them to have a look at the camera as being a cause of the issue.
They would have said, "sure, send the camera into us along with your receipt from an authorised Nikon Australia dealer and we will have a look at it under warranty"

You say I'm skimping because I won't spend $x because I don't need a magnesium waterproof grip. I think I'd be a bigger fool spending money on features I don't need.

Yep, especially if those features mean that it works straight out of the box the way it should. Total waste of money.
Anyway, for a hard working pro like yourself, a few hundred dollars price difference should be recouped in a few days weeks months. Plus there is always the likelihood that NPS would have loaned you a grip to use so that your work wasn't interrupted while they examined and rectified any problems in the Nikon grip.

[ricktas]

My phottix grip is on its way to me. Probably arrive before my D800. Will let everyone know what my first impressions are when I get the grip and take it out of the box etc. Most likely a few more weeks till I see my camera though.

[reaction]

I started this thread because I wanted to know whether a 3rd party grip should act the way it does.
I ended up having to defend why I chose a 3rd party grip, to all sorts of unrelated stuff. Luckily I still got my answer from some posts although not conclusive it seems a batch of the Meikes do what I saw while some others don't.

[JasonR]

Sorry to bump the old thread but I too was looking at the meike grip.
Have you done a write up on the other grip Rick?