D300 Battery Grip question

rsparts · September 10, 2008

I've been doing a little research and I need to know - Will the D300 Battery Grip (Model # MB-D10) take AA batteries AND nikon batteries or are there 2 different grips, one that takes AA's and one that takes nikon batteries

jonh68 · September 10, 2008

rsparts wrote:

I've been doing a little research and I need to know - Will the D300 Battery Grip (Model # MB-D10) take AA batteries AND nikon batteries or are there 2 different grips, one that takes AA's and one that takes nikon batteries

From my research, you buy the grip and then you buy a specific carrier for either the aa's or nikon batteries. Be careful on getting the nikon batteries, because I think the only one that gives 8fps boost is the D3 battery. The one for the D300 will help with battery life but fps. The aa's will give 8fps too.

rsparts · September 11, 2008

jonh68 wrote:

From my research, you buy the grip and then you buy a specific carrier for either the aa's or nikon batteries. Be careful on getting the nikon batteries, because I think the only one that gives 8fps boost is the D3 battery. The one for the D300 will help with battery life but fps. The aa's will give 8fps too.

ah so its interchangeable. cool thanks!

System · September 11, 2008

Yes they are interchangeable, and when you purchase the grip it should come with the AA battery holder insert as well as the d300 batter holder.
the one item you don't get is the holder for the d3 battery which seems to be quit expensive and so is that battery.

rsparts wrote:

ah so its interchangeable. cool thanks!

david_h · September 12, 2008

To use the D2 or D3 batteries in the D300/700 grip, you need to get the little holder, BL-3.

It is $35 from B&H here

I've been using this all year and never had to change the battery, even at the longest wedding.

Joves · September 14, 2008

It takes the AAs natively and has adapters for the other batteries. You are best off using the AAs though. That is all I use in mine. I already have a ton of them anyhow. The other benefit of them is they are very inexpensive.

jonh68 · September 17, 2008

InsuredDisaster wrote:

Yeah, but if you want to use the D3 Batteries, the charger is something like $200, and the battery is even more on top of that. AA's are cheap and my grip came with a little holder for 8 AA batteries. One extra benefit is getting the 8fps instead of 6.

Not quite. The D3 batter is about $110 and the charger is $120.

jonh68 · September 17, 2008

InsuredDisaster wrote:

Oops, my bad, the charger is a bit more expensive over here!

Ekaj · September 17, 2008

There seems to be a lot of misinformation being given out in this thread. The grip from Nikon comes with equipment to use either the en-el3 battery or AAs.

geospatial_junkie · September 17, 2008

Just purchased a D700 body with the MB-D10 grip. Here is what I know. Will work great with AA's and EN-EL3E battery. I can use the D3's EN-EL4A however, I would need to purchase an expensive charger to do charge it.

What you wil get with the EN-EL4A is longer battery life (not sure how much more though) and 8fps. I shoot with the standard EN-EL3E's (in both the camera and grip) and have about 3500 actuations so far (it is almost empty). Unless you are a sports shooter, I don't really see the need for the EN-EL4A, unless you have money to burn. Then by all means... burn away!.

Of course, battery life is dependent on things like VR, AF, LCD screen brightness, LiveView, etc...

D300 Battery Grip question

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