D3100 Battery Grip

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JoeLewisPhotography

Senior Member
Well, 2 major things. One is the extra battery, for prolonged shooting, and the other is to give you a better grasp of the camera while holding it sideways for portrait shots, without having to be a contortionist. This is possible with the additional shutter release button on the grip.
 
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Joseph Bautsch

New member
I have the battery grip for the D90. I used it on a whale watching trip where I got almost 1000 shots of whales. It worked fine and I used up the charge on both batteries getting the shots. The only problem I have with it is the additional weight. It really took a toll on my arms carrying the camera with a 70-300mm lens and battery pack for nearly 1000 shots in under three hours. It may be easier on the arms just to carry an extra battery in the pocket and change it out when needed.

This is your first post and thread, sorry, I should have started out with, Welcome to the Nikonites community. Fill out your profile for us and enjoy the site.
 
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F

fotojack

Senior Member
BW, welcome to Nikonites. Hope you enjoy the site and get all your questions answered here. :)
One of the reasons I got the grip for my D200 was for the dual battery feature, thinking that if one battery expired, the other would kick in. Such is not the case with my grip, and I don't know why it doesn't automatically switch over to the fresh battery. Perhaps I'm missing a setting for this feature, I don't know. Hopefully, someone can explain this to me. :)
Sorry......didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just wanted to add that.
 
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JoeLewisPhotography

Senior Member
Your not alone Jack...I actually just discovered this same issue with my D300s and battery grip yesterday. I had to actually remove the grip battery for the camera battery to kick in. On the D300s, the camera holds one and the grip holds one...which stinks because if both are dead you have to remove the grip to get the one out of the camera. I still love my grip though.
 
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Joseph Bautsch

New member
I don't have a problem with the battery switching. I use all Nikon batteries. (I have an aftermarket battery grip.) I have read on other forums that there is a problem with aftermarket batteries making the switch. Could that be the problem?
 
R

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
fotojack said:
BW, welcome to Nikonites. Hope you enjoy the site and get all your questions answered here. :)
One of the reasons I got the grip for my D200 was for the dual battery feature, thinking that if one battery expired, the other would kick in. Such is not the case with my grip, and I don't know why it doesn't automatically switch over to the fresh battery. Perhaps I'm missing a setting for this feature, I don't know. Hopefully, someone can explain this to me. :)
Sorry......didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just wanted to add that.
Click to expand...

The one for my D200 has a slide switch, Battery 1 or 2

The one for my D300 does not auto switch, when the one in the grip runs down I pull it out and the one in the camera takes over. In menu I can see the status of both.
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
Joseph Bautsch said:
I don't have a problem with the battery switching. I use all Nikon batteries. (I have an aftermarket battery grip.) I have read on other forums that there is a problem with aftermarket batteries making the switch. Could that be the problem?
Click to expand...

I have 2 Nikon batteries and 2 after market batteries. Doesn't seem to matter which batteries I have in the grip.......they still don't switch over.
 
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Joseph Bautsch

New member
The switch on my grip is electronic and is triggered when the first battery has discharged to where it is no longer able to power the camera thereby engaging the second battery. From what I understand from reading other forums Nikon batteries have a chip in them which allows the camera to read the charge condition to switch over to the next one. It's probably the reason aftermarket batteries won't automatically switch over in a grip. Or if the switch is not made even with Nikon batteries it may be a fault or lack of a switching feature in the aftermarket grip.
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
As I said, Joseph, I have a Nikon grip and even with 2 Nikon batteries in it, it doesn't switch over from one battery to the next. What happens on mine is if one battery goes below its optimal charge, the shutter stays open after I press the shutter button. Then I know that one of the batteries has died. So I don't know.....I'll just have to keep an eye on the charge of each battery using the battery meter in the camera. With the grip installed, the battery meter shows two batteries. Without the grip, it just shows one.
 
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Joseph Bautsch

New member
OK, these battery grips are all over the place when it comes to switching batteries. The aftermarket grip I have makes the switch and I don't even know it unless I look for it.
 
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