3rd Party Grips

[chuasam]

Has anyone had any experience with the MB-D12 alternatives?
I'm looking for a grip for my D810 and I'm wary to spend almost $400 on the OEM grip vs $100 for a 3rd party device. I don't shoot high speed and really want the grip for stability when shooting portraits.

 

[Patrice]

This gets discussed pretty often, already twice in the last 10 days.

There are those that will only use OEM on their expensive cameras and those that are adamant 3rd party grips do just as good a job. There are valid arguments for either position. Some will claim such and such a grip failed miserably and they might even include 8 x 10 glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back, whilst just as many others will swear that their grips still work after a 10 story fall off of a tall building into a deep dry well. A bit of exaggeration but what it boils down to is you'll end up having to make u your own mind. It's your dime and your $3400 camera.

PS: the search window near the top of the page works fairly well

PPS: I've always used OEM grips, never even considered a 3rd party one, but that's just me.

 

[KmH]

Read the Nikon D810 warranty closely.
It does not cover needed repairs caused by non-Nikon parts - like grips, lenses, batteries, flash units.

 

[chuasam]

Read the Nikon D810 warranty closely.
It does not cover needed repairs caused by non-Nikon parts - like grips, lenses, batteries, flash units.

I have a Mack warranty. I could accidentally drive over my D810 and Nikon would repair it and send the tab to Mack.

 

[chuasam]

PS: the search window near the top of the page works fairly well

I searched MB-D12 and got no hits. I'm not interested in 3rd party grips for other cameras. Just the D8xx series.

 

[Derrel]

Nikon has crippled the grips from some other cameras (D3300 and D5200/5300) by new firmware updates, and has also bricked some third party batteries....not sure if they have done anything yet to mess up aftermarket grips form the D8xx series bodies or not. This issue, that of NEW Nikon firmware updates rendering aftermarket grips useless on the entry- and mid-level crop-frame bodies was discussed by Thom Hogan on his pages in late 2013 and early 2014. Somebody here on TPF has a horrible problem, oh it was dinardy, using an aftermarket battery and grip at a wedding on his D7100; the thing refused to write images, and he ended up losing files, and had to pull the battery to get the camera to reboot properly. Nikon has sophisticated battery monitoring and battery-to-grip communication protocols. if you DO get a third party grip working, I would NEVER upgrade the firmware on the camera, in light of the stunts Nikon pulled late last year in crippling third-party grips and batteries...if the camera works, stay with the firmware you got the camera with, because Zeikos or whoever is NOT likely to be able to help you out.

 

[Overread]

Derrel makes some very good points regarding Nikon - that said if Nikon keeps up with their firmwire tactic I could see the 3rd party companies trying to counter. Sigma has started this already with their new USB port attachments on lens-caps for many of their newer lenses - so it wouldn't surprise me to find other companies coping the approach so that they can keep up with changes.

 

[astroNikon]

Adorama flashpoint has a magnesium body grip for the d8x0 that can apparently take 2 batteries.
I only read about it online
And I don't have a d8x0
And I only have OEM grips and batteries
But it's something to look at though the normal buyer beware as stated in above posts

 

[Derrel]

Adorama flashpoint has a magnesium body grip for the d8x0 that can apparently take 2 batteries.
I only read about it online
And I don't have a d8x0
And I only have OEM grips and batteries
But it's something to look at though the normal buyer beware as stated in above posts

ADORAMA or B&H Photo are vendors I would trust in buying third-party accessories for Nikon or other cameras...much more so than some Joe Schmoe from Texarkana or Dubuque with a small, one-man shop ordering made in China merch by the 25-count and selling it on e-bay...there is the "stuff" sold by e-Bay vendors who have no real skin in any game, and there are the big boys like Adorama and B&H and Cameta, Samy's, etc...Some of the stuff sold directly out of China or Taiwan I am just leery of because of the prevalence of counterfeiting that seems to plague the lowest end of the accessory market in those two specific markets. Not trying to impugn the rep of nameless, one-man, e-Bay vendors, just saying, those people have NO SKIN in the game...Adorama is at least a place where one KNOWS the physical location of the company!

 

[astroNikon]

Adorama Flashpoint has 2 grips for the d8x0
the higher level one with magnesium bits --> Flashpoint D12 Pro Magnesium Battery Grip,Water Resistant,for Nikon D800/ D800E FPBGMBD12M

and the cheaper probably all plastic one --> Flashpoint D12 Battery Grip for the Nikon D800/ D800E Digital SLR Camera FPBGMBD12A

and a cheezy review of the magnesium on --> A dot Hoglen: Review: Flashpoint D12 Magnesium Battery Grip for D800/D800e from Adorama


once again .. I've never used either of them
but ti's interesting seeing magnesium 3rd party grips now and especially one that can hold 2 batteries instead of one .... for those of us that don't want to recharge until after a couple months.

 

[chuasam]

I might suck it up and get the MBD12. It annoys me greatly that something as simple as a grip can cost so much. It's a matter of buying the grip or buying something else more fun


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[Overread]

Grips are loads of fun

First you've got a spot for your pinky finger to hold onto the camera (I don't even have big hands and I find my finger slips off the bottom of the camera without a grip)

Then you've got all those portrait aspect controls - suddenly you can shoot portrait and your wrist won't complain and try to give up half way through

And finally you can put something like a canon E1 wrist strap on and now you've got some additional support when holding the camera in normal landscape aspect (I find it helpful mostly when holding the camera at rest - you can sort of dangle it against the grip letting you relax your hand a little)

 

[astroNikon]

Why don't the camera makers rotate the sensor so it's vertical and call it a portrait camera. Then we wouldn't need grips except for a landscape shot lol

 

[chuasam]

Why don't the camera makers rotate the sensor so it's vertical and call it a portrait camera. Then we wouldn't need grips except for a landscape shot lol

Why don't people rotate their bloody iPhones and stop doing vertical movies.
Yeah 90% of my photos with my d810 are vertical.


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[astroNikon]

Why don't the camera makers rotate the sensor so it's vertical and call it a portrait camera. Then we wouldn't need grips except for a landscape shot lol

Why don't people rotate their bloody iPhones and stop doing vertical movies.
Yeah 90% of my photos with my d810 are vertical.


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This was posted several months ago about a thread about vertical video ... VVS -->