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D810 and MB D12


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5 replies to this topic

#1
dgeffs

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Just bought a D810 and the battery grip. I've been using a battery grip on my old D200 forever and I figured this would be similar. Wrong! While I love the features and wouldn't shoot without it there is a glaring difference I neglected to notice. The old grip for the D200 allowed insertion of two camera batteries and this new one only allows one. I guess I should look closer at what I purchase.

 

So can the camera battery still be used in the camera with an additional battery in the grip? Of course this begs the question of how does one charge the camera battery without removing the battery grip. Unless there is a way to charge the battery in camera this is a horrible feat of engineering by Nikon.

 

Plenty of us need the extra power for video, time lapse and astro photography. Please tell me I'm missing something.

 

Dale



#2
TBonz

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Dale,

 

Welcome to the Forums!

 

The simple answer is yes, you use both batteries and yes, you have to remove the grip to charge the body's battery.  Of the bodies I have looked at with grip, it is the same way in all of them these days.  I had the D100 with grip which was similar to the D200 setup from your description.  The good news is that you can shoot quite a long time with the two batteries so you shouldn't have to charge as often!  During spring sports season where I was shooting lots of images almost daily, I rarely had to charge more than once a week.  Note that usually included days where I might shoot several games in a day.  I now have D4 bodies which have the grip built in and use a single battery.  I think I got more images out of the two batteries, but obviously I don't have the issue of removing the grip to change a battery...

 

What I used to do in that situation was to pull the battery out of the grip, charge it and then pull the grip off.  I'd put the charged battery in the body and replace the grip before charging the second battery which would then be put into the grip.  Yes, it is kind of a pain in the backside, but I much preferred shooting with the grip and I got used to doing it fairly easily and quickly.  In some ways I like the design better after getting used to it, but I certainly understand your thoughts on their engineering of the design.  


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#3
Ron

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Actually, if you have the camera set up to use the grip's battery first, it charges the camera's battery. At least it works that way for me.

 

--Ron



#4
dgeffs

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So the grip battery will charge the camera battery? If this is the case I would never have to remove the grip. Think I'll do some testing.

 

Nikon seems to have abandoned the multi-battery grip which for the life of me I don't understand. On the D200 grip I thought it was a brilliant design and something to expect from Nikon. Oh well...



#5
Ron

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The grip battery certainly seems to work that way on both my D610 and D7000. Of course your mileage may vary. It's not really much of a bother to remove the grip if you want to be sure that your camera's battery is fully charged. A small hassle, yes, but it's probably a good idea to pull the camera's battery out every now and then anyway to check the contacts for corrosion.

 

I'm not real crazy about the grips on my cameras either. I much preferred the grips that had a camera battery insert built in... the thing that went up where they camera's battery would normally go. You would then put two batteries in the grip. This arrangement seemed to be much more secure than the current grips which fit flat across the bottom of the camera. I'm not sure what Nikon's thinking was in changing grip configurations but it probably comes down, in one way or another, to price. 

 

--Ron



#6
morticiaskeeper

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My D7000 grip battery seems to be used first, it gets a regular charge, but the in camera battery always seems full.

Much prefer the old system of both batteries in the grip, it just seems logical. The grip does have to come off for days like today, when the aircraft cockpit is too cramped for camera and grip!