MB-D11 Knock-off arrives today!

[480sparky45 44]

So after a looooooooooooong day, I get home and there's a package sitting at the back door. From China.

OK, so let's slow down.

The package was a padded manilla envelope. Not what I would expect for a package that needs to cross at least a dozen time zones, but what the heck. At least it was taped up well. Someone in the shipping department must have a brother-in-law in the packing tape business.

Carefully (ha!) opening the package, I find this:

Proceeding further, I open the box and end up with this:

I pull out the parts and remove the plastic wrappers. Now I'm down to the good stuff!:

I find the other battery holder inside the grip.

So I remove the cover on the bottom of my D7000, (as well as the hard plastic cover on the grip's connection point). As with the Nikon version, there's a place on the grip to store it.

With a bit of trepidation, I install it on my D7000. Hmmmm. Looks & feels good!

I start checking the function of the grip, and everything seems to work as designed. The only difference I see so far is you cannot call up the screen information with the ring around the grip's shutter release.

Seems you can only lock/unlock the shutter release. This is really of no consequence to me as I never use that function on the D7000 anyway... I always use the "INFO" button on the back.

The front & rear wheels replicate the camera's wheels. I left mine set for the default, where the rear wheel sets the shutter and the front controls the aperture.


The menu button is as exact duplicate of the camera's. It's not rotated 90° as I would expect. So when scrolling through images while holding the camera in portrait, I need to use the 'Up' & 'Down' buttons, while the 'Left' and 'Right' change the information shown on the screen.


So far, so good. I haven't had a chance to actually use it yet. Most of my work is with a tripod, so the grip won't even be used. But for my fat fingers, I'm sure this grip will be a welcome relief for when I'm shooting sports, family events,..... stuff like that.


I'll do some more checking & posting later on. I'd like to make sure it works with the AA batteries, if I swap the front/rear wheels on the camera will the grip follow suit, set the battery order,.....things like that. When I get a chance to really take this puppy out for a spin, I'll be sure to post my results!

 

[Stradawhovious]

Well, is it here yet?!?





Visully the only difference I can see is the markings on the labels, shutter on/off button and it doesn't appear to be weather sealed around the contacts and battery housing like the Nikon verson.

I would be curious to know it's construction, whether it is Magnesium Alloy like the Nikon (doubtful) or something different like aluminum or plastic. Either way, if it works it seems worth the money for those who don't want to spring for the name brand.

Good buy, please keep us posted as things progress with it.

 

[480sparky45 44]

One quirk I've noticed so far.

The rear command dial is exactly opposite of the camera's. The front wheel is 'correct', but the rear is 'backwards'.