Battery Grip for D70

[TonyH]

Could anyone tell me if you need to remove the battery door (completely) to be able to attach a battery grip on a D70.

Part 2 of the question.... are they any good?

Cheers

Tony

[DStrom]

Is this for a D70 or D70s?

The D70 does not support a battery grip, the third party ones I have seen do seem to require removal of the battery door.

Check the manual for details:

http://www.harbortronics.com/detail.php?id=2

the grip will add bulk and weight, but will increase battery life. On the D70 it will either require modification or the us of a fiber optic cable to enable the shutter on the battery grip.

As such I have never felt the need for one myself.

[Raskill]

I have one for my D70s body.

It adds a fair bit of size and weight, but the bonus of the two batteries is great. My one requires the battery door to be removed, which is easy, and easy to replace also. The grip has a small area to store the battery door, so that you don't lose it. It's also great if you have bigs hands, because sometimes the D70s seems a bit small.

It has a solid connection with the D70s and still allows a tripod to be used. It fires the shutter via the remote control cable. It does allow for a half shutter press for pre-focusing, something I was always told it didn't. This is for the D70s mind you, not the D70. Big differences!!!

The grip is rubberised and has a nice solid feel to it, with a nice shutter button.

The bad side is the connecting cable doesn't stow away, so if it's not being used (and you need to unplug the cable) you either remove it or let it hang. I'm toying with the idea of getting mine hardwired into the body by a pro electronics geek.

All in all, I'm really happy with mine.

Hope this helped.

[Yi-P]

I have one for my D70 as well.

Raskill basically mentioned most of the important feature, larger (much comfy) grip, the acceptable vertical release, and the battery life.


About the battery door, its very easy to remove and to put it back, so its not a problem.

Other point in concerns for me about the grip is that it only grab hold of the battery insert, and tripod mount on the camera, leaving the left side of it unattached and no hard conact to the camera, it will wobble a little bit if you mount it on tripod with the grip's tripod socket.

The tripod socket iself is not perfectly aligned with the one on camera (Raskill, can you check if this applies to yours as well?). Doing panoramas can be a bit of problem when it comes to stitching up.


Other than those little issues, its a great addition to the camera, specially the 2x battery inside and extra grip + weight + size. Handling and holding the camera is much a pleasure despite the weight.

[rokkstar]

I didn't think you could get one for the D70, only the D70s.
The one on my D200 is awesome....absoloutely live it.

[Raskill]

The tripod socket iself is not perfectly aligned with the one on camera (Raskill, can you check if this applies to yours as well?). Doing panoramas can be a bit of problem when it comes to stitching up.

Bugger, your right. Lucky I never use a tripod. It's about 10 mm to the right. There you go.

[TonyH]

Thanks for the input guys.....

I might just wait until I get a D2X(s) or D200.

I really getting turned off by what I have read and has been said about the fibe optic cable (mine is a D70 not a D70s).

Cheers

Tony

[elffinarts]

I've actually toyed with the idea of swapping my d70 plus cash for a friend's D70s as she does not want to use a vertical grip... if she says yes, it'll give me longer to save for the D200

Does anyone here use the D70 with the fibre optic shutter release on the remote and if so, how do you find using it?

[Yi-P]

Does anyone here use the D70 with the fibre optic shutter release on the remote and if so, how do you find using it?

I do


I find it frustrating somehow. Just because it has no half press focus. Getting a portrait from vertical grip is kinda hard to land the focs on the eyes, specially if you need recomposition after focus, then forget about using it.

It can be good whenever you only need to guess a focus or the focus pane is large enough to be landed on anywhere within the frame.

Shutter release respond, is about firing the remote control to the D70 from 0.5m distance, quite responsive on the press, but shutter lag increase alot from the actual real shutter button.

The one I have, it has a little pre-molded plastic slip in module (what a name) for the fibre optic cable, so that it is locked tight when its in place and I can always take it out whenever not using it. The attachment is sturdy and the way the cable runs (at least the way i set it) does not intefere with shooting anyhow. It will not fly around or swing when moving or walking with it.

[elffinarts]

ahh I doubt I'd bother if it cannot give half shutter release focus. I work mostly in very low light fast shoots too often to a:manual focus and b:shoot often at anything other than f1.8 LOL
so if it isnt sharp right where I need it then it gets thrown away.

[elffinarts]

anyone else considering getting the D70 modified to take the adapter cable to match the D70s? as per http://www.harbortronics.com/D70_Mod.pdf

[Glen]

Mark, if you got it done by Harbourtronics I would think you would get better value getting a D70S s/h and have a second body. Especially as all D70 prices will drop with the D80 out. Someone may know of someone doing the conversion here cheaper.

[elffinarts]

Hi Glen, I'm thinking more along the lines of having someone locally figure out how it can be done rather than waste so much money with postage and insurance otherwise the replacement of my D70 with a D70s would likely be cheaper. That and I cant afford to be without my D70 for that amount of time.