I just received my grip today and so my review may be a bit premature, but I thought I would share my initial impressions. First, the grip arrived well before its scheduled arrival date; always a big plus! Second, the grip seems well built, although I don’t know how it compares with the grip actually made by my camera manufacturer. Given the price of the OEM grip, however, I am very happy with the build quality of this third party grip. Third, it attached to my camera perfectly and all of the functions immediately worked as they are supposed to. I have read reviews on a variety of third party grips and one thing that keeps coming up is that the operational controls just feel cheaper. Using my camera controls and the grip controls I suppose I can feel a very slight difference. But at $140.00 v $1300.00 or so, I’ll take the trade off and it’s barely noticeable anyway. I do get 9 frames per second v the 7 frames per second without the grip. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s a LOT faster. One reviewer of the OEM grip stated that he felt his camera also focused faster with the added grip, perhaps due to the greater battery power. I have to admit it seems that way too with this grip as well. I can’t swear to it and maybe I was influenced by his observations, but I am leaning towards that same conclusion. I have only one negative comment about this grip, and it’s a minor one; there were no instructions in the box. I think the manufacturer should include instructions covering use, care, charging, etc, but I suppose it’s all pretty straightforward anyway. Overall, my initial impressions are that this is an excellent grip at a significantly lower price than the OEM model and I am very pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend it.
As a follow-up, I’ve owned this grip for almost a year now and have shot literally thousands of photos with it. This grip is simply fantastic and works extremely well in both portrait and landscape modes. I haven’t had a single problem with it and it makes my d850 blazingly fast (for a dslr). Battery life is also excellent. It is also very durable and easy to clean. I remain very impressed!
