Third party grips?

[Ballistics]

Anyone swear by their third party battery grips?

 

[o hey tyler]

I had an Opteka battery grip when I had a T1i. It fared pretty well for a year and a half or so. Shortly thereafter a bit of the rubber grippy part started to peel.

The buttons feel a bit stiff, unlike on camera bodies themselves. It worked though. Did its job for me. But I opted for an OEM grip when I upgraded to full frame.

 

[dcrowephoto]

I've used a Vello grip for my D7000 for the past three months and it works great! (Vello BG-N4 Battery Grip for Nikon D7000 BG-N4 B&H Photo Video)

 

[HughGuessWho]

Yes. I have used an Opteka on both a Rebel and a 7D for several years and have had zero issues. And they were a third of the price for a Canon grip.

 

[sovietdoc]

Like tyler, I used Opteka grip for my T1i. After a year the rubber started to peel off and the buttons were harder to press than on the camera body. What's weird is that I bought it with 2 opteka batteries and they were actually higher capacity than canon's one. I've never had any problems with the grip, everything worked fine, but you could see the build quality wasn't top notch. With that said, back in the day the equivalent canon grip was like 300 bucks and each battery was another $50 so getting me the same thing for $40 with Opteka was definitely worth it.

I'd say if you have a cheaper DSLR, get opteka stuff, it works and isn't overpriced. If you have a camera that costs $2500+ then why bother with cheap grips? Just get a brandname nikon or canon, the grip build quality will be the same as your camera and you can rely on it without thinking "omg what if I drop it" Higher-end grips aren't plastic, they're made from metal/magnesium alloy. Some are even weather sealed.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Great luck with 3 after market grips thus far, and trust the latest with my heavy 70-200 VRII without issue.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

I've owned 3 Zeikos grips for the different Nikon's I've owned (D90, D7000, D700). I've been REALLY impressed with their cost-to-value ratio. Never had any issues with any of them. Not bad at all for 1/6 the cost of the OEM grips...

 

[Vtec44]

I have one on my D7000 and another on my D80. So far so good, even with heavy lenses.

 

[Infinite_Day]

I have a Meike for my D7000. It works fine with the exception of the wheels working backward from those on the camera. It's not built anywhere near as well as the Nikon simply because the MB-D11 is metal and the third party ones are plastic. I don't think I'd put it on a tripod using the screw mount on the bottom of the grip with anything but maybe a 50mm prime on it. They are a pretty good cost saving option over the OEM units.

 

[Svandru]

I bought one for my K7 from Deal Extreme. It was a near perfect match the Pentax grip except that it isn't weatherproof. A year and a half later it is just like new. It even came with two batteries that let me use the Pentax rechargeable battery or Lithium AAs. It had space for a spare SDCard,too.