3rd party grips - worth it?

NeilA1975

NeilA1975

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anyone have any cameras bricked as a result of using a 3rd party grip? Have a D800E and am considering purchasing one as opposed to paying silly NIkon prices.
 
I have used third party ones, but the build quality is not as good, obmiouly. I used on for the EOS 10D (back in the day!) but it was a rubbish £30 ebay job; Bought the genuine one and much better. Didn't affect the camera thought!
 
We have used a few third party grips across a number of camera bodies as well as using the manufacturer oem grips. Tbh there isn't a huge amount of difference the only one we have ever had any issues with was a Meike branded grip for the Nikon D750. If you screw it on too tight it becomes extremely difficult to remove we had one that had to be cut off, thankfully there was no damage to the camera but we no longer use meike grips on our D750's for this reason. We do use Meike grips on other bodies though with no issues and have also done so in the past. The manufacturer oem grips are definitely better made but the actual functionality is basically the same.
 
I have used several and I've just picked up a Pixel grip for my D500.
One Meike grip I had for my D810 was faulty and locked the camera up every time it was fitted so it went back to Amazon.
The D500 Pixel grip seems very sturdy and everything works fine, £60+ rather than £400+ for the OEM was a no-brainer to me. :)
 
Cheers chaps, just a bit concerned from a few reports that some of these grips hav bricked cameras....will give some thought.
 
Had a fake Canon one get stuck on a camera - was a pig to remove. Didn't know it was a fake initially - all branded and boxed correctly - however I'd only stick with genuine. Depends on your use I would imagine - if you're a weekend wanderer adding a couple of hundred shots a month, the quality is less important. If you're out at all hours shooting 1000's of images a month - I'd go for the real one.
 
I purchased a Meike one for my D750, tried it on and boxed it back up and retuned it within about 15 minutes! To me it felt too plasticky, and a bit 'creaky' in the hand. I also didn't trust the strength of it, especially as I like to use a BlackRapid strap.

I have since paid the extortionate £220 ish for the genuine Nikon version, which initially doesn't seem worlds apart from the 3rd party grip - but it does feel better in terms of build quality, and the finish of the plastic and rubber grip matches the D750 exactly.

If you can afford it, go genuine - it will be a better product.
 
I've used a meike grip which had glitches, another make which I can't remember which broke after 5 mins, and now have a vertex which has been fine,......... so far.
 
Re: the Pixel grip, I had an email from Pixel yesterday regarding a query I had and on the bottom of the email was a note saying,
(Kindly note that you are not advised to purchase PIXEL products from AliExpress according to the feedback from our customers about their poor post-sale service.)
Click to expand...

(I didn't buy from Aliexpress).
 
I bought a 3rd party one for my Sony a77 Mk2- the camera went crazy like it had a virus or something I binned the grip- avoid like then plague is my advice- stick with brand name

I bought a Sony grip for £200 never had an issue with it

Les
 
I would firstly question if you really need a grip at all.

Portrait, sports or wedding shooters - probably yes; Landscape people or even simply those mainly shooting in horizontal format - no, not really.

From a landscape perspective the attachment of tripod mount completely undermines the convenience of the grip while making it impossible to get your lens down really low on tripod.
 
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