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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad battery grip, March 24, 2011
By
crazydeus (USA) -
See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(
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This review is from: NEW Professional Vertical Battery Grip Holder for Nikon D3100 SLR Digital Camera EN-EL14 Battery (Electronics)
Just received this in the mail, and played around with it for a little bit, and will get a better impression of the product soon. Real quick, the brand is MeiKe, and I have no complaints about the distributor. I ordered on the 19th, they shipped out on the 22nd via USPS, and I received it today.
On to the grip.
Physically, the grip does look like it "belongs" - the texture is spot-on, and it fits under the camera nicely with only a minute amount of play once screwed in tightly. However, by just having it in your hands, you'll realize that the grip itself has thinner plastic than the camera. This may not matter to some, but basically it just feels different when switching from horizontal to vertical. It's similar to the difference between holding a Nikon and a Holga - it's almost toy-like. And the grip portion is just a touch too fat and square. I'm sure they could have worked it to be much more ergonomic and mimic the D3100's grip slightly. Again, it's the impression of being toy-like. But, regardless of the feel, the one thing that might have given it another star is if there was a command dial on it.
The battery door is a tad loose, but not much more than the camera's SD card door. A little irritating, to be sure, but certainly not a deal-breaker. When bored, I'm positive you can make a drum kit out of the two.
There is a signal cable that goes from the grip and into the camera's GPS port. No configuring, just plug and play, which is handy. The problem, of course, is that the flap covering the ports is wide open. When you're walking around, dust is going to get in there, without a doubt. But this is not a flaw of the grip - we all know who's at fault here. (Us, for owning a camera that doesn't have normal signal connectors in the first place.) In any case, it works as advertised - half press initiates AF, and the full press takes the shot. I was concerned there would be a tiny delay because of cable involvement, but not so. At least, imperceptibly there didn't seem to be a delay.
All in all, not a bad grip at all. Given that as of this writing it is the only D3100 battery grip available... Well, you gotta take what you can get. It may not be a great blend of form and function, but it seems to serve its purpose just fine for now. It will certainly tide us over until someone makes a higher quality grip.
Also, I will try to update this review after I've seen some use with it. One thing to watch for is how it handles one of the batteries running out.
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