Hi folks,
I received my third party grip for a D700/D300 today from the eBay seller LinkDelight. As is well known they sell a grip made by Meike for about £45 shipped from Hong Kong.
There are a few reviews knocking around but I thought I'd throw in my 2p.
First off, it slipped through customs without VAT. Dunno if this is normal, I know £45 is about on the limit where they will stop a parcel. It arrived within a few days of ordering too, surprisingly quick.
Secondly, it all works as expected, all the buttons are programmable, it works whether or not you put batteries in it, it will take AA's or EN-EL3's, and it boosts the camera up to 8 or 9fps when it has batteries in.
It looks exactly like the camera. The texture on the plastic and on the rubber grips is a pretty damn close match to the D700's own. Not 100% perfect, but pretty damn close.
The lock button on the shutter release also locks the joystick and the AF-On button, ie it locks all the buttons on the whole grip, which is good.
The quality and general feel is pretty much spot on, couldn't really fault it, certainly no 'flex' in it that I can detect.
The only quality issue I do have is that, even when fully tightened, the plastic wheel which turns the metal screw that attaches the grip to the body remains loose and wobbles around. This is not a problem per-se, and it's clearly meant to be that way, but now and again I touch it whilst shooting and it feels like I pressed a button because it moves. I'm pretty much trying to make up problems here though, it's probably designed this way so that you can't accidentally unscrew the grip.
Anyway, all in all, if you asked me to improve this thing I'd say there's nothing to improve, it's spot on, so I would highly recommend it for £45 if you're after a grip for a D700/D300/D300s.
I struggle to see why the Nikon one, at £280 is worth it, though I have one coming in the post (due to the D700+free-grip offer) so will post my thoughts when it arrives.
I received my third party grip for a D700/D300 today from the eBay seller LinkDelight. As is well known they sell a grip made by Meike for about £45 shipped from Hong Kong.
There are a few reviews knocking around but I thought I'd throw in my 2p.
First off, it slipped through customs without VAT. Dunno if this is normal, I know £45 is about on the limit where they will stop a parcel. It arrived within a few days of ordering too, surprisingly quick.
Secondly, it all works as expected, all the buttons are programmable, it works whether or not you put batteries in it, it will take AA's or EN-EL3's, and it boosts the camera up to 8 or 9fps when it has batteries in.
It looks exactly like the camera. The texture on the plastic and on the rubber grips is a pretty damn close match to the D700's own. Not 100% perfect, but pretty damn close.
The lock button on the shutter release also locks the joystick and the AF-On button, ie it locks all the buttons on the whole grip, which is good.
The quality and general feel is pretty much spot on, couldn't really fault it, certainly no 'flex' in it that I can detect.
The only quality issue I do have is that, even when fully tightened, the plastic wheel which turns the metal screw that attaches the grip to the body remains loose and wobbles around. This is not a problem per-se, and it's clearly meant to be that way, but now and again I touch it whilst shooting and it feels like I pressed a button because it moves. I'm pretty much trying to make up problems here though, it's probably designed this way so that you can't accidentally unscrew the grip.
Anyway, all in all, if you asked me to improve this thing I'd say there's nothing to improve, it's spot on, so I would highly recommend it for £45 if you're after a grip for a D700/D300/D300s.
I struggle to see why the Nikon one, at £280 is worth it, though I have one coming in the post (due to the D700+free-grip offer) so will post my thoughts when it arrives.
. I have the Meike brand grip for the D80/90 and I believe everything that you wrote about their D300/700 version, as it sounds exactly like my grip. The thumbwheel feels loose on that too, but you soon get used to it 
. At 40GBP, I wasn't complaining 
.