D7200 with grip is hard to hold?

I recently was able to purchase a 3rd party (Hahnel) D7200 grip for AUD30 (roughly USD20) to have a play with. It arrived in the mail this morning and I only had time for a quick play.

The added weight was no surprise. I was quite prepared for that. What did surprise me is that I found it awkward to hold for long periods in horizontal orientation. It seems my natural hold on the camera with no grip attached rests the weight of the camera on my curled pinky finger. With the grip attached, I am unable to get under the weight I have to grip the camera much more tightly which leads to quick fatigue. There are a couple of medical issues at play here that weaken my grip slightly but I have little to no trouble shooting literally all day at an airshow without the grip attached - my record number of shots in a day is 11,000. I literally mean all day. (Please save the criticism on "spray and pray". My keeper rate is high and that's not the topic of this post.). I'm pretty sure that even without those medical issues I'd be having trouble.

The other issues I have with the vertical/portrait orientation had to do with getting use to the position of the viewfinder and buttons, and trying to keep my left hand out of the way of the flash popup button. I assume that would just be something I would get use to over time. So not such a big deal. The one I'm worried about is having to grip the damn thing so tightly.

Is the grip just not for me, or am I doing something wrong. Anyone use a grip and got suggestions on what I might do? It's a pity. I really like being able to change battery without having to pull the main battery from the camera.

Hi

You have chosen the best way to try out something new by buying a 3rd party grip. I have a grip for my D300 which does make for a heavy combination. I purchased a used Nikon grip with the aim of trying it. I find a grip most useful when using the camera in portrait orientation where the positioning of the shutter release makes it easier to operate. I dont find it makes any diference regarding swapping batteries, although i do not take as many images as you in a session. So if the purpose of a grip is to provide double the battery life rather than improve the camera handling, i can see the benefit to you. For me i woild rather carry an extra battery or 2 in my pocket as they only take seconds to swap over.

Re-training your little finger may be needed!

Good luck

Peter

d50bsl said:

Hi

You have chosen the best way to try out something new by buying a 3rd party grip.

Click to expand...

For $30 I don't think I can go wrong really. I actually bought 3 grips - 2 for D7200 and 1 for Canon 700D. Bit more than $30 but I don't normally get to buy a decent grip at this price, and even if I just flip them on Ebay I shouldn't lose much.

d50bsl said:

I find a grip most useful when using the camera in portrait orientation where the positioning of the shutter release makes it easier to operate. I dont find it makes any diference regarding swapping batteries, although i do not take as many images as you in a session.

Click to expand...

Thanks Peter. I tend to go crazy once or twice a year at events, but my typical count is more like 2000-3000 at those events and I don't typically shoot 8 hours straight thankfully. It would be nice not to have battery run out at an inopportune moment. But really with a bit of planning that's not such an issue. Shots per battery on the D7200 is superb. Last time I took the camera out I took less than 30 shots (but that is also unusual).

d50bsl said:

So if the purpose of a grip is to provide double the battery life rather than improve the camera handling, i can see the benefit to you. For me i woild rather carry an extra battery or 2 in my pocket as they only take seconds to swap over.

Click to expand...

I think that I'd rather keep the extra batteries in my pocket too.

d50bsl said:

Re-training your little finger may be needed!

Click to expand...

It's not that awkward. It's the weight and the tighter grip needed that is giving me trouble. My hands don't feel up to it and I don't know if things would get better or worse if I tried to push through.

d50bsl said:

Good luck

Click to expand...

Thanks and thanks for the response.

Sounds like the grip isn't worth the benefits, as it should be comfortable for you to hold your camera. Just get a couple of extra batteries.

I know this will definitely help but...I've never owned or wanted to own a grip. Whenever I see a used camera being sold with a grip the first thing I think of is "I wonder how much I can sell that grip for?"

Interestingly the Canon 700D doesn't feel too bad with the grip and I can get my little finger underneath. It's just a slightly smaller camera but that seems to make the difference.

I had another play with the D7200 and I think I COULD get use to it for shorter shoots if I had to, but probably won't. As you said not much benefit.

There is one reason I'm glad I bought these grips and I won't sell them - they let me power the cameras with AA batteries. If they last long enough to be museum pieces and still work after the Nikon batteries die it will be worth it.,

I shoot a lot of vertical stuff, so a proper vertical grip with full camera control is needed. In horizontal position, my man-sized hands fit better. I can keep all fingers on the camera and my pinky doesn't hang beneath. The double battery life is great, and the ability to use AA's, if out in the field and regular batteries die, is a bonus.

Sounds like you bought an accessory you didn't need in the first place. 3 of them actually.

And holy cow @ 11,000 shots in one day.

Jonsi said:

I shoot a lot of vertical stuff, so a proper vertical grip with full camera control is needed. In horizontal position, my man-sized hands fit better. I can keep all fingers on the camera and my pinky doesn't hang beneath. The double battery life is great, and the ability to use AA's, if out in the field and regular batteries die, is a bonus.

Sounds like you bought an accessory you didn't need in the first place. 3 of them actually.

And holy cow @ 11,000 shots in one day.

Click to expand...

My pinky finger doesn't dangle. It goes underneath and supports the camera. I guess that must be unusual?

I'm not unhappy with having an accessory that will allow me to operate the camera long after proprietary batteries are no longer available. I tend to keep my cameras till they die.

Sounds like a grip is not for you.

I have large hands but I do not care for grips. My wife had a D300 with grip and I bought her a D3 so I could have the D300 and the first thing I did was take off the grip and put it in a drawer.

It must be the size of your hands. I am also a classical pianist, and have large hands and long fingers. If there is no grip on my D750, I find it very uncomfortable to shoot, as in vertical, I am bending my wrist, and normally, my palm will run off the camera. So I surmise it may be because of the size of your hand.

It sounds like you hold the camera with both hands on the body. Try cradling the weight of the camera with your left hand under the body/lens - if the lens is long enough you don't touch the camera body at all. Your right hand can then be much more relaxed.

--
Wedding and fine art photographer www.johnleechstudio.co.uk

With a lighter lens I hold the camera in my right hand only but with my little finger under the base of the camera supporting the weight.

With a heavier lens I hold the lens with my left hand supporting its weight and my right hand grip on the body is the same though obviously I don't have to support the weight as much.

I shoot with a Nikon D200 with a vertical grip attached. I find that I can hold the camera steadier when shooting in portrait (vertical) orientation with the grip attached and using its shutter release button to trigger the shutter. This issue is important for me as my lenses don't have the vibration reduction feature, and the D200 does not offer the very high ISO sensitivities of more recent cameras, so I'm forced to use slower shutter speeds when shooting at my favorite focal length for street and concert photography, which is 200mm. I find that with the grip attached I can get sharp images at shutter settings less than 1/200 of a second, where the recommended shutter speed for a 200mm lens on a DX camera is 1/300 of a second or greater.

The following shot was made with a Nikon D200, Tamron 28mm - 200mm f3.8-f5.6 lens, at 1/125 sec @ f/8.0 and ISO = 400. The focal length was 200mm.

BillAngel said:

I shoot with a Nikon D200 with a vertical grip attached. I find that I can hold the camera steadier when shooting in portrait (vertical) orientation with the grip attached and using its shutter release button to trigger the shutter. This issue is important for me as my lenses don't have the vibration reduction feature, and the D200 does not offer the very high ISO sensitivities of more recent cameras, so I'm forced to use slower shutter speeds when shooting at my favorite focal length for street and concert photography, which is 200mm. I find that with the grip attached I can get sharp images at shutter settings less than 1/200 of a second, where the recommended shutter speed for a 200mm lens on a DX camera is 1/300 of a second or greater.

The following shot was made with a Nikon D200, Tamron 28mm - 200mm f3.8-f5.6 lens, at 1/125 sec @ f/8.0 and ISO = 400. The focal length was 200mm.

Click to expand...

The D200 is a nice camera. I own one I got very cheaply second hand but I rarely use it. It does require more discipline. But for those of us that have been shooting for a while, we started off when ISO 400 was as high as you ever really wanted to go, so we had to apply that discipline.

The D70 and D200 could both shoot at 1/8000th flash sync with a bit of unofficial trickery because they used a CCD and electronic shutter at higher speeds. All other advantages like 5fps frame rate have been matched or exceeded by newer models. That doesn't mean it's not a capable machine in the right hands and in the right circumstances.

--
Sammy.
My forum postings reflect my own opinions and not those of my employer. I'm not employed in the photo business.

And I am looking at my last event shooting with a D4. Then comparing them to my D200, I found that ISO 800 on my old D200 looks like ISO 16000 on the D4. And ISO 1600 on the D200 looks like ISO 51200 (Barely usable). Amazing progress in just 8 years or so.

That's been my experience with attaching a grip to the Nikon D7100. It's not the grip, that happens when you add bulk and change up the configuration of holding the camera. Eventually, you'll adapt to it, or remove it and use an L bracket on a tripod.

By my reckoning, 11,000 shots in a day requires about 9 batteries at full charge. No grip can help you. If it's uncomfortable, remove it. Grips do the following: make portraits a bit easier, balance a camera with a big lens, improve battery power. None of these things apply to you.

edamon said:

By my reckoning, 11,000 shots in a day requires about 9 batteries at full charge. No grip can help you. If it's uncomfortable, remove it. Grips do the following: make portraits a bit easier, balance a camera with a big lens, improve battery power. None of these things apply to you.

Click to expand...

The grip actually can help in that situation because you will never miss a shot changing the battery in the grip, as it will just switch to the main grip. I also have a Sigma 150-600C which would nicely balance and arguably it would make my 70-200 2.8 VR balance a bit better too. I mostly wanted to buy it

I shoot thousands of shots in a day a handful of times a year. But 11,000 is unusual and a record.

1. To get experience with a grip and see if it really helped with vertical shooting.

2. So I can use AA batteries when model specific batteries are no longer available (presuming the cameras survive).

I don't have a problem with an AUD30 spend on that (roughly USD20). I was just hoping to get more regular use out of it.