[knoxploration]

You sure do like to insist the third party grips' are the second coming, Sakura, but the fact is that your protestations aside, a portion of their users do find them inadequate in terms of quality, fit, and finish.

I'm not sure I'd want to see what lens you intend to buy with the extremely modest difference in price between the first-party and third-party grips, either.

[Freak]

You sure do like to insist the third party grips' are the second coming, Sakura, but the fact is that your protestations aside, a portion of their users do find them inadequate in terms of quality, fit, and finish.

I'm not sure I'd want to see what lens you intend to buy with the extremely modest difference in price between the first-party and third-party grips, either.

Lol, Well I saved over $300 by buying the DX grip, works perfectly and hasn't left my K7 in 6months. And that $300 goes a long way actually. So not all other users aren't so anal retentive, on the issue of On/Off paint wearing off. And i could spend $300 in much better ways, glad it's not much money to you.

[Pentaxor]

Lol, Well I saved over $300 by buying the DX grip, works perfectly and hasn't left my K7 in 6months. And that $300 goes a long way actually. So not all other users aren't so anal retentive, on the issue of On/Off paint wearing off. And i could spend $300 in much better ways, glad it's not much money to you.

it's not just paint wearing off, but the controls being loose or stiff which makes it uncomfortable for the user. I don't mind having a cheap alternative, but atleast they should had put some quality into it and not steal the design.

[knoxploration]

Lol, Well I saved over $300 by buying the DX grip, works perfectly and hasn't left my K7 in 6months. And that $300 goes a long way actually. So not all other users aren't so anal retentive, on the issue of On/Off paint wearing off. And i could spend $300 in much better ways, glad it's not much money to you.

I'm presuming you're talking non-US dollars, which you should probably clarify given that most other users won't be in the same country as you.

Given that list pricing for the D-BG4 is only US$200, it's impossible to have saved US$300 on a single grip. The DX grip might be cheap, but they sure don't hand you a hundred dollar bill to take one. ;-)

As for what it saves you, Sakura suggested it would fund a lens purchase. I put it to him that the difference in price between the D-BG4 list and the DX retail prices would barely cover the cost of a poor quality third-party consumer-grade lens new, or perhaps an old manual focus lens or two of intermediate quality. It certainly wouldn't cover the cost of any lens most K-7 owners would want to buy, let alone list pricing for any current Pentax lens model.

[Freak]

I'm presuming you're talking non-US dollars, which you should probably clarify given that most other users won't be in the same country as you.

I'm talking AUD, which at the moment has parity with the USD anyway, so either way. But ironically, perhaps we all shouldn't think USD is the end all and be all, because not everyone lives in the USA (to the surprise of most Americans it seems) hell perhaps i should quote the Yuan, as it's likely to be more important than USD in the future in terms of global currency. History and politics aside.

Given that list pricing for the D-BG4 is only US$200, it's impossible to have saved US$300 on a single grip. The DX grip might be cheap, but they sure don't hand you a hundred dollar bill to take one. ;-) As for what it saves you, Sakura suggested it would fund a lens purchase. I put it to him that the difference in price between the D-BG4 list and the DX retail prices would barely cover the cost of a poor quality third-party consumer-grade lens new, or perhaps an old manual focus lens or two of intermediate quality. It certainly wouldn't cover the cost of any lens most K-7 owners would want to buy, let alone list pricing for any current Pentax lens model.

Well i guess that's assuming we all live in the USA, which only a very small proportion of the world, actually does. But in my case from Australia, and it seems Sakura is from the Netherlands, so perhaps it's only you Americans that get it so good, the rest of us can save the amounts suggested by Sakura.

Pentax D-BG4 Battery Grip | Camera-Warehouse
The AUD price is $479.00, Now i could give you a list of lenses that you could buy for that price over here.

DA-L 35mm f/2.4, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (can be had here for $400), hell the price of $499 for the DA15mm Ltd can be had. Not to mention a lot of older glass that could be had for a lot less. So i think his point is quite valid in the world i live in. (Obviously YMMV)

Hell i just purchased a Metz 58-AF2, which can be had for the money i saved from buying the DX version as well. Considering the differences are quite minor IMO in quality and usability, I have used single battery in the Grip, so i never have to take the grip off, it's taken 15,000 shots with the cheap battery grip, so I'd say money well saved for me on that one.

[knoxploration]

I'm talking AUD, which at the moment has parity with the USD anyway, so either way. But ironically, perhaps we all shouldn't think USD is the end all and be all, because not everyone lives in the USA (to the surprise of most Americans it seems) hell perhaps i should quote the Yuan, as it's likely to be more important than USD in the future in terms of global currency. History and politics aside.

I've lived on three continents, so I'm pretty familiar with perceptions of different currencies around the world.

I think it's safe to say when you make a statement in dollars without mentioning the currency, few members of this forum who aren't already aware of your location will assume you're talking about Australian dollars -- and that most will likely assume you mean US dollars, if they try to make a guess.

Well i guess that's assuming we all live in the USA, which only a very small proportion of the world, actually does. But in my case from Australia, and it seems Sakura is from the Netherlands, so perhaps it's only you Americans that get it so good, the rest of us can save the amounts suggested by Sakura.

US population: 307,006,550
Australia population: 21,874,900
Netherlands population: 16,531,294
Mythical "Netheralia" combined population: 38,406,194 ;-)
"Netheralia" size compared to US population: 12.5%

This is, by and large, an English-speaking forum. The United States is -- far and away -- the largest population of native English-language speakers in the world. (It's still the largest even when you consider people speaking English as a second language, although India isn't too terribly far behind, apparently. Australia just barely scrapes into the top ten.)

Yes, I'm sure there are a few places here or there which have price disparities for the official Pentax grip. I'm equally sure there are places where the cheap knock-offs aren't as cheap as they should be. I can't confirm the validity of your claimed price, because I don't live in Australia, and hence don't know which retailers offer good values there, and which are gouging. Could be you're right and Australia is charging double the typical price for that grip. From my point of view, though, it could equally be that you don't know where the official grip is best priced in Australia.

That's all beside the point, though, which is that given the populations above, most forum members likely don't have anywhere near as large a price differential as a few members here seem to, and for most people, it's not even remotely close to the truth to claim you could afford a lens for the price difference.

[SALUKIS97]

I have had my 3rd party grip for almost a year now.

It works perfectly.

I am glad I made the rational decision and saved the money.

[HGMonaro]

me too. Only actually turned it on about twice... I've got it to make the camera better to hold... no pinky dangling in space!

[Globaldanish86]

LOL, Pinkies dangling in space are dangerous. I too have the 3rd party (ordered it a week ago) and would never buy a piece of plastic for $200.00USD. That seems too frivolous a purchase and as an armature, it seems ludicrous to waste money in this recessionary period. Those who can afford without remorse, the "Pentax" grip, go ahead, for the other broke majority of us 3rd party users, I believe we're doing just fine.

[Tommot1965]

Ive just got a Pentax grip. { bought in the market place}..it replaces my third party grip, the first thing I noticed was a increase in weight over the 3rd party grip. at first I thought the seller had left the battery in...but no :{

after a quick weigh, the difference was 20 grams ....the pentax grips finish is better, my third party grip was already starting too look shiny in places, and lose its lettering on the on/off switch .

the shutter release is so much better too.....all in all I do regret getting the third party grip,[ but it was a xmas pressie} cause the pentax one is so much better

[felixkh]

I got my 3rd party grip a year ago in March 2010 and until today, it still sits on the K7 and works great. Although some paint has come off the ISO and +/- buttons, it still works. Got mine from DealExtreme and it costs about USD$80.00 at that time. i actually got it from another forumer in Clubsnap SG.

It is the type 2 grip that looks like the original

[fewayne]

Had a scare last night; was shooting Live View with the K-7 in M mode and pressed the review (>) button. The camera started making a horrible grinding/clashing noise and would not respond to turning off either power switch (the one on the 3rd-party Type 2 grip only turns the grip button off anyway, not the camera). Pulled it off the tripod, pulled the battery out of the grip, still doing it. Pulled the grip off, still doing it. Pulled the camera battery out, blessed silence. Replaced the battery, switched on, and the rear screen was flickering like an old tube CRT at 20Hz vertical refresh! AAAAAA! Dug a newly-charged, Pentax-brand battery out, put that in, everything back to normal.

So I don't know if it was the grip, the battery in the camera, or some combination. I have been using the grip quite extensively since July without a single previous problem. The grip came with two knockoff batteries, and Abe's of Maine managed to up-sell a spare battery (also a knockoff) with the camera. The latter has been in use since December 2009, the former pair since July 2010.

[felixkh]

Had a scare last night; was shooting Live View with the K-7 in M mode and pressed the review (>) button. The camera started making a horrible grinding/clashing noise and would not respond to turning off either power switch (the one on the 3rd-party Type 2 grip only turns the grip button off anyway, not the camera). Pulled it off the tripod, pulled the battery out of the grip, still doing it. Pulled the grip off, still doing it. Pulled the camera battery out, blessed silence. Replaced the battery, switched on, and the rear screen was flickering like an old tube CRT at 20Hz vertical refresh! AAAAAA! Dug a newly-charged, Pentax-brand battery out, put that in, everything back to normal.

So I don't know if it was the grip, the battery in the camera, or some combination. I have been using the grip quite extensively since July without a single previous problem. The grip came with two knockoff batteries, and Abe's of Maine managed to up-sell a spare battery (also a knockoff) with the camera. The latter has been in use since December 2009, the former pair since July 2010.

Could be the battery. I use 2xoriginals and one OEM on my K7+Grip and so far have no issues.

[Freak]

Had a scare last night; was shooting Live View with the K-7 in M mode and pressed the review (>) button. The camera started making a horrible grinding/clashing noise and would not respond to turning off either power switch (the one on the 3rd-party Type 2 grip only turns the grip button off anyway, not the camera). Pulled it off the tripod, pulled the battery out of the grip, still doing it. Pulled the grip off, still doing it. Pulled the camera battery out, blessed silence. Replaced the battery, switched on, and the rear screen was flickering like an old tube CRT at 20Hz vertical refresh! AAAAAA! Dug a newly-charged, Pentax-brand battery out, put that in, everything back to normal.

So I don't know if it was the grip, the battery in the camera, or some combination. I have been using the grip quite extensively since July without a single previous problem. The grip came with two knockoff batteries, and Abe's of Maine managed to up-sell a spare battery (also a knockoff) with the camera. The latter has been in use since December 2009, the former pair since July 2010.

I have reported this issue once before as well, It wouldn't turn off, and then flickering rear LCD screen. I too had the grip on, can't remember if had both batteries in or not. It did freak me out, but it has not happened again in the last 6months. But I did suspect grip/battery as the culprit, just couldn't work out which one.

[darrenleow]

Just received my grip from DX and the front e-dial only works when turning the thing to the right.