Non genuine battery grips for Nikon

[bernhund]

I'm toying with buying a vertical battery grip for a D7100, but don't know whether the alternatives to a genuine Nikon(MB-D15) are any good. There's a huge price difference, which ordinarily would make me cautious, but this doesn't mean they are rubbish. Has anyone experienced alternatives to the Nikon and what do you think?

[ExPat2B]

Nikon seem to determined to drive out non standard batteries, some of the firmware upgrades from Nikon have stopped the third party batteries/grips from working. So they have taken a big price hit as no -one knows what the future holds.

[ian in lancs]

I have used Chinese non standard grips on two D700s and a D300S with Nikon and non Nikon batteries for a couple of years and 100k shots - absolutely no problems with any of it.

[58warren]

Looking at the Canon battery grips when I wanted one for my 700D, the replicas look absolutely identical apart from the Canon print on them (which can't be seen when attached to the underside of the camera). I think the copies may actually originate from the same manufacturer as they are absolutely spot on design wise and material quality wise.

I did go for a Canon one eventually as it was a good price, but still 3 times the price of the non-genuine ones!

[bernhund]

ian in lancs said:

I have used Chinese non standard grips on two D700s and a D300S with Nikon and non Nikon batteries for a couple of years and 100k shots - absolutely no problems with any of it.

I was looking at a Meike one. Does that ring any bells? Good to know you had success with Chinese grips.