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After a test outing with my new D7000 it became obvious that I'd been spoilt by having a grip on my D90, and that in order to use the D7000 comfortably it would absolutely need to be gripped, not least because I found it awkward to hit the focus mode button on the AF selector switch - I have rather large hands.
So last weekend my Saturday mission was to secure one of these. Checking the online sites showed a disappointing lack of stock, not that I was going to order it online, I always prefer buying from the bricks and mortar shops - I guess I'm old fashioned like that. Anyway checking the online stock levels is generally a good bellwether as to the level of stock in the high street.
It turns out that these things are practically as rare as defecating rocking horses in this part of the world. Nevertheless I found a shop which had one in stock, but it was at another branch across the other side of the city. They had it brought over within 30 minutes so I can't complain about the service. Damn this is expensive I thought as I handed over my card. 460CHF (Swiss Franks) it was, around £300 in real money. I'd seen prices for them in other places for around 400CHF, which pretty much matches what Warehouse Express are selling it for, but guess what, out of stock.
OK, enough of my moaning, lets move on to my thoughts about it. Taking it out of the box the first thing that struck me was that it had a much more solid feel to it than the MB-D80 that was on my D90. The second thing was that instead of using a long extension which goes into the camera's battery bay, it now uses a connector that goes into the base of the camera, exactly like the grip for the D300/700. The connector on the grip doesn't look like it would take much abuse as it's rather thin, so I would advise keeping the little plastic connector cover handy for those times when the grip is off the camera. Attaching the grip requires the removal of a rubber cover from the base of the camera - something that is easily losable. Thankfully and conveniently there's a place on the grip where this can be stored - Nikon do think of the little things.
Also new for me is the addition of a joystick to allow focus point selection. I can see this being very useful for me. In fact it appears that the functionality of the MB-D11 is exactly the same as the MB-D10 for the D300/700, the only difference being that it's just smaller.
On the camera the solid feel of the grip is immediately apparent. With the improved build quality of the D7000 and the grip, gone is that creaking feeling that I always had on the gripped D90 with only a medium weight lens on it. Altogether the grip and the camera are a much more solid package. In use with a Nikkor 105 f/2.8 VR together with the R1C1 macro lighting rig attached to the lens I never felt anything less that totally confident with the handling, whereas with the D90 and grip I would have probably found myself cradling the camera a bit more.
The main and sub dials seem to be considerably stiffer than the ones on the camera, so much so that my forefinger slipped while operating the sub dial a couple of times. I could probably put the slippage down to the environment I was in as it was extremely sweaty, 30ºC, 100% humidity. The lock switch is also stiffer than I'm used to. Maybe these will loosen up a little with a bit of use. The shutter release is now more like the camera's shutter release. The D90 had a very definite half press and full press, while the grips shutter release was somewhat squidgy. The D7000's is softer than the D90's but the MB-D11's is stiffer that the MB-D80's so the pair seem to be better matched. The joystick for focus point selection is a joy to use and very welcome.
Something that will catch the D90 users out is that the MB-D11 only has space for one EN-EL15, the other EN-EL15 must reside in the camera. This means that every time the camera battery needs to be replaced the grip has to be removed. This is a bit of a pain, especially as the battery may need to be changed in less than ideal conditions. My solution to this is simply to run with one battery in the grip, and no battery in the camera. To be honest even with a days shooting of 6 or 7 hundred photos I never came near to fully using a D90 battery, and as the new batteries for the D7000 are supposed to be better, I don't see this being a major problem. Of course the grip comes with a tray for AA batteries as well which could at times be useful as a last ditch backup.
I suppose the question is, is it worth the best part of £300. For me the answer at the moment is yes. However as third party grips become available for the D7000 possibly for as little as £30 - 50 then I can see how people would not be able to justify paying for the official Nikon version. If you're in the market for a grip for your D7000, and can afford it then I'd recommend the Nikon grip on shear build quality alone, not to mention that it is guaranteed to be 100% compatible. If on the other hand the price is making your wallet tremble then perhaps there'll be a 3rd party grip which would would work just as well and be more than sufficient for your needs
Pros
Feels very solid and well made
Shutter release button is an improvement on the MB-D80's
Joystick control a very welcome improvement over the MB-D80
Niggles
Only takes one battery
Main and Sub dials, plus the lock switch feel stiff at the moment
Cons
Price
Deal breakers
None for me. Price perhaps for others.
So last weekend my Saturday mission was to secure one of these. Checking the online sites showed a disappointing lack of stock, not that I was going to order it online, I always prefer buying from the bricks and mortar shops - I guess I'm old fashioned like that. Anyway checking the online stock levels is generally a good bellwether as to the level of stock in the high street.
It turns out that these things are practically as rare as defecating rocking horses in this part of the world. Nevertheless I found a shop which had one in stock, but it was at another branch across the other side of the city. They had it brought over within 30 minutes so I can't complain about the service. Damn this is expensive I thought as I handed over my card. 460CHF (Swiss Franks) it was, around £300 in real money. I'd seen prices for them in other places for around 400CHF, which pretty much matches what Warehouse Express are selling it for, but guess what, out of stock.
OK, enough of my moaning, lets move on to my thoughts about it. Taking it out of the box the first thing that struck me was that it had a much more solid feel to it than the MB-D80 that was on my D90. The second thing was that instead of using a long extension which goes into the camera's battery bay, it now uses a connector that goes into the base of the camera, exactly like the grip for the D300/700. The connector on the grip doesn't look like it would take much abuse as it's rather thin, so I would advise keeping the little plastic connector cover handy for those times when the grip is off the camera. Attaching the grip requires the removal of a rubber cover from the base of the camera - something that is easily losable. Thankfully and conveniently there's a place on the grip where this can be stored - Nikon do think of the little things.
Also new for me is the addition of a joystick to allow focus point selection. I can see this being very useful for me. In fact it appears that the functionality of the MB-D11 is exactly the same as the MB-D10 for the D300/700, the only difference being that it's just smaller.
On the camera the solid feel of the grip is immediately apparent. With the improved build quality of the D7000 and the grip, gone is that creaking feeling that I always had on the gripped D90 with only a medium weight lens on it. Altogether the grip and the camera are a much more solid package. In use with a Nikkor 105 f/2.8 VR together with the R1C1 macro lighting rig attached to the lens I never felt anything less that totally confident with the handling, whereas with the D90 and grip I would have probably found myself cradling the camera a bit more.
The main and sub dials seem to be considerably stiffer than the ones on the camera, so much so that my forefinger slipped while operating the sub dial a couple of times. I could probably put the slippage down to the environment I was in as it was extremely sweaty, 30ºC, 100% humidity. The lock switch is also stiffer than I'm used to. Maybe these will loosen up a little with a bit of use. The shutter release is now more like the camera's shutter release. The D90 had a very definite half press and full press, while the grips shutter release was somewhat squidgy. The D7000's is softer than the D90's but the MB-D11's is stiffer that the MB-D80's so the pair seem to be better matched. The joystick for focus point selection is a joy to use and very welcome.
Something that will catch the D90 users out is that the MB-D11 only has space for one EN-EL15, the other EN-EL15 must reside in the camera. This means that every time the camera battery needs to be replaced the grip has to be removed. This is a bit of a pain, especially as the battery may need to be changed in less than ideal conditions. My solution to this is simply to run with one battery in the grip, and no battery in the camera. To be honest even with a days shooting of 6 or 7 hundred photos I never came near to fully using a D90 battery, and as the new batteries for the D7000 are supposed to be better, I don't see this being a major problem. Of course the grip comes with a tray for AA batteries as well which could at times be useful as a last ditch backup.
I suppose the question is, is it worth the best part of £300. For me the answer at the moment is yes. However as third party grips become available for the D7000 possibly for as little as £30 - 50 then I can see how people would not be able to justify paying for the official Nikon version. If you're in the market for a grip for your D7000, and can afford it then I'd recommend the Nikon grip on shear build quality alone, not to mention that it is guaranteed to be 100% compatible. If on the other hand the price is making your wallet tremble then perhaps there'll be a 3rd party grip which would would work just as well and be more than sufficient for your needs
Pros
Feels very solid and well made
Shutter release button is an improvement on the MB-D80's
Joystick control a very welcome improvement over the MB-D80
Niggles
Only takes one battery
Main and Sub dials, plus the lock switch feel stiff at the moment
Cons
Price
Deal breakers
None for me. Price perhaps for others.