I just saw this on Nikonrumors.com. I have one for the D7000 and it has been good to me... :mrgreen: mb-d12 battery grip | eBay
They really are pretty good for the price. I originally bought one for my D7000. I also have 2 other friends that bought them as well. Although, I have to say, all 3 of us became quite displeased with them after putting them through a few mounts of decent use. The quality just isn't there. They seemed great at first, but then more flex kicked in, the shutter release button started to become inconsistent, some have backwards rotating dials, and mine and one of my other friends started having trouble with the battery contact points on the grip and the second battery would go away and then show back up in the camera. All three of us have since bought the real Nikon grips and all couldn't be happier. You do get what you pay for with these grips and they are FAR from the quality of the real Nikon grips. But hey, at least I was only out an extra $45 dollars LOL Seeing that the D800 knockoffs are about double the price of the D7000 knockoffs, I am curious to see if the quality is any batter. I would guess not.
yay more threads about how the quality of nikon grips vs aftermarket grips to follow!!!! It makes sense to buy the d7000 battery grip for $200 vs $45 but the d800 nikon grip is $450... WTF nikon? i am sure in a year or so we will find $60 grips for the d800
well why not? the grip doesn't effect image quality. I never grip my cameras anyways but buying nikon branded remotes, cables even lens caps is a little ridiculous. Accessories is where the stores make their money, there is a huge mark up on them. personally it makes a ton of sense to buy cheaper remotes and grips after spending $3000 on a camera, money i save goes further into lenses and filters. i have yet to hear of someone actually deystroying their camera with one of these grips, i constantly hear of them breaking down but spending $450 on a vs $45 is a no brainer.
I can assure you that it will effect your image quality when the crappyness of the third party grip kicks in while you're in the middle of a shoot and it stops working....Some people can't have that (I understand that everyone's expectations are different). I learned the hard way while shooting a wedding. Now I know it's a no brainier to spend the extra money.
then u take the grip off and shoot with just the camera... and the one battery. Or shoot with the other camera that should be swung off your neck because you brought a backup right? you don't loose your camera, the image quality doesn't suffer at all. I don't shoot with grips to begin with i find it just adds excessive weight, it does help greatly with a 2.8 tele or zoom lens, and for the few times i would need to use that i would rather have the $50 grip then the $500 grip. If you are a professional that is shooting weddings or paid gigs then why the hell do you have a $50 untested piece of gear on your camera anyways? I would only bring gear that is tested, reliable and have backups. This is where i can understand spending $450 on a grip but for everything else it still doesn't make sense to me.
