Get a Grip!

I got my MB-D11 battery grip working again with my D7000. It had a problem with intermittent power losses, which caused the camera to stop working for a moment and sometimes lose a photo it had just taken. I reasoned that it was probably an issue with a faulty electronic connection between the grip and camera, or between the battery tray and the grip. So I removed the grip with the idea that I'd take some DeoxIT to the electrical contacts and see if that fixed it. But I never got around to it and I eventually just got used to using my camera without a grip. Yesterday – by coincidence one year to the day that I removed the grip – I finally cleaned the electrical contacts with DeoxIT and that did in fact fix the problem.

Wow. I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a grip! For big hands, it's really great to have something more substantial to hold. And it makes portrait-oriented shots less clumsy and more steady. It also makes the camera balance better with longer, heavier lenses. And of course, it adds extra battery capacity when you need it. The drawback is that it adds considerable extra weight and it makes the camera less stealthy, but for the kind of photography I do the benefits are well worth it.

I only wish I hadn't waited a year to fix it.