Meike D800 Grip REVIEW

Photowyzard

Senior Member
Well, well, well, guess what arrived in the mail!?


Meike D800S grip. "S"?? :lol: Probably to avoid any copyright issues.


So, here is how this looks:


The packaging is a very high grade, paper bag. :lol: Hey, I paid $69, what do you expect. I like the bag and I am keeping it. It has a nice reusable rope tie thing on the bag. I have never, EVER shipped anything in a bag before, but it is a nice communist green colour and has lots of Chinese on it, so... high grade from me. :p Seriously, who ships like this?


I grade the bag: A+


Packaging.jpg



This is what comes INSIDE the bag:


Aaah, the grip is in a box. OK, not bad, the box took a bit of a dent but that is OK, NOTHING DAMAGED INSIDE!! No room to complain here!


I grade the box and contents on arrival: A+


Box.jpg



I open the box that has a slight ding on it, see picture and here is what you get:


The Meike D800 Grip
The AA cartridge for holding AA batteries (BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED)
The EN-EL15 Lithium-ion Battery cartridge for holding the EN-EL15 battery (BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED)
Instruction book written in lots of languages
Warranty card
Business card offering a discount if you order things from a website
Bubble Wrap


It all arrived in immaculate condition.


I grade the contents out of the box: A+


Inside.jpg



Here are some picture views. Here is what I did:


REMOVED ALL BATTERIES FROM CAMERA, NOTHING IN GRIP. BOTH ITEMS HAVE ZERO CHARGE.
Nothing was turned on.


Angle-1.jpg



Angle-2.jpg



Angle-3.jpg



Solid fit. See the three above images. I have read reviews online that again, make me wonder who rights this poop. The grip fits TIGHT. No issues. Solid plastic. The soft mottled grippy plastic is an excellent mimic of the D800 finishing. Very well done.


The wheel to screw on the grip is solid and makes a tighter fit than the Nikon D90 grip I have! How can you fault this? It even has a little holder to put the rubber from the bottom of the D800 that covers the pin connections.


The dials are every bit as solid feeling as the ones on my D800. I read a review that said these were cheap. I certainly can't tell the difference. The tripod connection on the bottom screws into something that has a solid piece of steel across the bottom of the grip on the inside.


This grip has the feel of a solid, well made, pro grip and looks high quality. It feels terrific on the D800.


Overall, just from appearance and order experience, I rate it all an A+.


If Only I had the courage to TRY IT OUT!!! :lol: $69 paperweight! Live and Learn.




D800-Meike-Grip.jpg



Go here to see the overpriced NIKON MB-D12 grip on a D800 and compare:


Nikon D800 body | LetsGoDigital


SORRY for the quality of some of the images, I just point my D90 and shot. No fiddling to get them perfect. Since this is just educational, I didn't spend that much time on taking and retaking the images to get them perfect.

UPDATE: Posted 3 weeks later! Here are my findings to complete this review!! (I also posted this somewhere else in this folder. I put it here as well for first time readers)
=======================

As promised, I am following up on my review of the Meike D800 Battery Grip.

Here is what I did:

To make myself feel more comfortable, I spent and exhaustive number of days reading through feed back from individuals who purchase this grip. I did not find ONE complaint.

This gave me a fair amount of encouragement because if this grip was burning up D800's all over the world, people would be screaming about it. I did not find any concrete evidence from the pool people I check out on ebay who responded positively to the grip.

All feedback was pretty much the same. The grip arrived immediately. It was shipped in that lovely paper bag and ..... IT WORKED without a hitch.

I made sure the power on the camera was off and the switch on the grip was off, I charged up my battery, installed the grip on the D800 so it was nice and snug and fired it up. Are you ready......


WORKED LIKE A CHARM


I experimented with Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority etc to ensure the dials on the gripped work. Everything functions 100%. I could find no fault or nit with this items what so ever.

So, based on my personal hands on experience, I would:

HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE GRIP.
 
Last edited:

stmv

Senior Member
What! are your teasing us? all that effort, and you aren't going to give it a test swirl?

I have gotten these for my other cameras, and they always just collect dust, I find that the battery life is plenty good now, actually the D700 was so fantastic, I sometimes got lazy and went out with dangerously discharged state.,

The new sealed battery (darn Japanese safety code), are not as good, but ok for single day shooting, but I always check now before leaving the house, and if not above 80%, I swap out.
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
For me it's not just about the battery, it's about comfort and ease when holding the camera especially when shooting in the "Portrait" vertical position, that extra shutter button comes in very handy, atleast for me. I have two 3rd party grips, one for the D200 & D300. Both have worked flawlessly for several years. Nikon is just too proud of their grips.
 

Billy Y.

Senior Member
Haha, maybe you should change it to "Meike D800 Grip Preview" since you aren't going tell us how it actually works. Ken Rockwell would be very disappionted in you, and you forgot all those money making sponsor links. :)
 

joecap

Senior Member
I have one on my D5100.
I love it. Solid fit. Looks like the camera is one piece.
I have big hands. Holds two batteries..
Paid $25.. Amazon.com
 

Photowyzard

Senior Member
Teasing you? LOL No....

Here is what happened.

I ordered the grip thinking this is no big deal. Just like any other accessory. I thought it was a seamless, brainless purchase.

The, people on the other forum I frequent (PlanetNikon.com) started warning me about possible consequences. I listen to people on the forum because I have been there a few years and have a high degree of respect for their knowledge and advise. There have been some issues with this grip. One member here who is on both forums also had an issue. So, a red flag went up.

I did some research and saw that some people did have problems. So, I put the brakes on. The grip arrived, exactly in the time period Meike said it would. You see it above.

Now, here is where I am coming from:

1) I love the feel of a gripped camera. Especially for portrait work. I also really, really like the extra battery and extended shooting time.

2) The Ripoff Authentic Nikon grip is NOT ON MY RADAR as a purchase at the current prices. Maybe at 50% off. Not at the prices it is currently at so I can add one extra battery. So, this isn't life and death to me. If I bought the NIkon grip, I would order an EN-EL15. So, I am going to order an EN-EL15. Same out of pocket money. I have a charger, I charge two and go. Same result, Nikon doesn't get to have an ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET on my wallet. Sorry Nikon.

3) If I don't use the Meike grip, so what. I am out $69. If I can find a way to test it and see that it works, I will attach it to the camera and let you know.

These online posts about the grip shorting out your camera etc., in all likelihood, are from SHILLS who are purposely put there to scare you off of this purchase. Or, they are bozo's because, as you can tell from my review, there is nothing I can see wrong with the outside quality, the aesthetics, the fit or the service.

I don't feel any pressure to try it yet until I know it won't fry the camera. So, it could be a month before I update you on how it works. If it works, I can tell you, it will work fine.

So, stay tuned. Hopefully, what I did write up for you is of some value to this point. As much as I like to help people out, I don't think I want to be a Ken Rockwell as I don't get paid for my opinion and, I am not going to jeopardize my warranty or camera for your satisfaction. I trust you fully understand that line of thought! :) No offence intended, just telling you the facts as I see it.
 
Last edited:

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Art, why don't you just try the grip without a battery in it? I really don't see how it could hurt a camera. All problems I've heard with third party grips usually had to do with third party batteries too.

If it works fine without the battery, then you have a pretty nice portrait grip…

Let us know!
 

Photowyzard

Senior Member
Marcel,

This was my intention as well. Just use the battery in the camera itself. I will let you know. Again, I want to get some feed back on this first.

Trust me, I will update this thread!
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
Not a problem, just messing with you a little. 3K for a camera makes one think. The two I have were from linkdelight if I recall.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 

Photowyzard

Senior Member
Not a problem, just messing with you a little. 3K for a camera makes one think. The two I have were from linkdelight if I recall.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2


Don't worry, that is OK and a valid response. All responses posted are valid. I am giving you my honest appraisal and thought process.

This is the honest goods as I am not on anyone's payroll. What you see is what it is.
 

Billy Y.

Senior Member
Hey I was just joking around, mostly I was curious if the aftermarket grip would perform the fps boost, but I don't want you to ruin your camera trying it out. And I enjoyed reading the review, especially the part about the bag. ;)
 
Last edited:

Photowyzard

Senior Member
Hey I was just joking around, mostly I was curious if the aftermarket grip would perform the fps boost, but I don't want you to ruin your camera trying it out. And I enjoyed reading the review, especially the part about the bag. ;)


I have to apologize as I am a little too B&W when it comes to reading humour but fast to toss it out.

I LOVE the bag. I mean, SERIOUSLY, OK, WHO ships anything, INTERNATIONALLY, especially something electronic, in one of those bags you can open by unwrapping a string? I just about died laughing when I saw it.

Remember, I paid $69 (factoring exchange), so, this is not the end of the world to me. But seriously. Can you imagine buying a LENS and having it shipped like this!? ROTFL

I AM keeping the bag! No joke about that. Makes me laugh every time I look at it. And, it is a nice shade of pale green, the image washed it out.
 

Photowyzard

Senior Member
As promised, I am following up on my review of the Meike D800 Battery Grip.

Here is what I did:

To make myself feel more comfortable, I spent and exhaustive number of days reading through feed back from individuals who purchase this grip. I did not find ONE complaint.

This gave me a fair amount of encouragement because if this grip was burning up D800's all over the world, people would be screaming about it. I did not find any concrete evidence from the pool of people I checked out on ebay who responded positively to the grip.

All feedback was pretty much the same. The grip arrived immediately. It was shipped in that lovely paper bag and ..... IT WORKED without a hitch.

I made sure the power on the camera was off and the switch on the grip was off, I charged up my battery, installed the grip on the D800 so it was nice and snug and fired it up. Are you ready......


WORKED LIKE A CHARM


I experimented with Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority etc to ensure the dials on the gripped work. Everything functions 100%. I could find no fault or nit with this items what so ever.

So, based on my personal hands on experience, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE GRIP.
 
Last edited:

joecap

Senior Member
I use a Meike Grip on my D5100 & I love it. Never had any issues with it. It stays on 24/7.. I keep two batteries in..
 
Top