[alexeyga]

I can't understand people. You pay close to $1400.00 for a camera, then you are going to use third party accessory that could possibly damage it to save some money. Company like Tamron, Sigma et al. have a reputation they want to keep, but some third party manufacturer might be there for a quick return on their investment with absolutely no remorse about the damage they can cause. If a third party grip damages the camera, I don't think Pentax will cover the repair under warranty.

For myself, I'd rather play it safe and use known equipment suppliers. My cameras are worth more than the saving I could potentially realize with a third party grip.

You're exactly the kind of people of whom big players make their money... For as long as consumers will be ready to blindly pay premium prices for the BRAND name, manufacturers will continue own us doggy-style with premium prices...

Cheers....

[Sakura]

Yeah, besides the weather-sealing, it appears to be pretty much the same thing. I wrote a posting in here a few months ago about why I think battery grips are the most over-valued accessory in the Pentax catalog, price-wise. I love uasing a grip and find it to be necessity at times....but paying $200 for something as simple as what it is...ridiculous in my opinion. These should be no more than $100 from Pentax. If someone out there is making one and selling them, for $90, more power to them.

Jason

I really don't understand those sellers. If Pentax asks $100 for the grip, almost anybody would buy it, and no "second brand" grips would appear.

Now with there pricing only a few buy a original grip.
Pentax would sell a lot more and make a lot more profit with lower pricing. If second brands can offer a grip for as low as $ 35 and still makes a profit, Pentax can to.

[raider]

I also looked into these 3rd party grips for the K-7 before I got my original grip from pentax. To be honest, these 3rd party grips do not look too bad at all (though I have yet to handle one). Some even state that they are weather resistant! Well, I am just too timid to try one so I squander all my cash on an original grip.

[LeDave]

You're exactly the kind of people of whom big players make their money... For as long as consumers will be ready to blindly pay premium prices for the BRAND name, manufacturers will continue own us doggy-style with premium prices...

Cheers....

Also I believe the K-7 is worth the pricing for what it offers. For the grip, it can't be said the same to me; 200 dollars for a plastic chunk that makes portraits easier and increases battery life, maybe if it were magnesium alloy also then it would be worth the price. A third party grip is closer to what it offers for the price, therefore people are willing to shell out money on a K-7 and not buy the genuine grip.

So for those who say why did you buy a K-7 for that much and not spend more money on a the real genuine grip, well there you have it. Also one who spends that much on a K-7 doesn't technically mean they have big money to spend on big lenses and big accessories; it could just mean that it's hard-earned cash.

[richardd]

Now I made the decision to buy the Pentax grip ...
but to also try to buy the $54 grip ... I am
hoping the battery trays at least are close
enough to be compatible ... if so,
I tear apart the third party grip, add wires to direct
wire to my NiMH recharger, and keep the AA's in the tray
for recharging, just swap between two different trays/sets.

That system worked out well for my Nikon 8800. No fumbling
with AAs on top of a mountain!

[Jasvox]

I really don't understand those sellers. If Pentax asks $100 for the grip, almost anybody would buy it, and no "second brand" grips would appear.

Now with there pricing only a few buy a original grip.
Pentax would sell a lot more and make a lot more profit with lower pricing. If second brands can offer a grip for as low as $ 35 and still makes a profit, Pentax can to.

That is pretty much exactly what I meant.

Jason

[Andrew Faires]

You're exactly the kind of people of whom big players make their money... For as long as consumers will be ready to blindly pay premium prices for the BRAND name, manufacturers will continue own us doggy-style with premium prices...

Cheers....

Fight the MAN!!!

Seriously though, it all depends on your uses.

I'd rather pay the premium so if the weather-sealing screws up it's on Pentax head and not mine. If I mess around with a 3rd party grip that's supposed to be weather sealed and it fails, do you really think that warranty is going to mean anything? The extra $100 or so is pretty cheap insurance.

Note: It also helps that while henrys was selling the grip for $279.99, The Camera Store in Calgary was selling it for $179.99 when it was first released.

---

Last edited by Andrew Faires; 01-10-2010 at 06:38 AM.

[Sakura]

And do you really think that Pentax will give warranty when you have waterdamage in you're cam?

They will simply say that you used it in a envirement that was to wet for the cam.

The other fact is, how often are you using you're cam in the rain.

And the rare occasions that it really is raining when you wan't to take pics, you always can simply remove the grip from you're cam.

The originally grip is simply way overprized. A very bad marketing of Pentax imho.

[Andrew Faires]

And do you really think that Pentax will give warranty when you have waterdamage in you're cam?

They will simply say that you used it in a envirement that was to wet for the cam.

The other fact is, how often are you using you're cam in the rain.

And the rare occasions that it really is raining when you wan't to take pics, you always can simply remove the grip from you're cam.

The originally grip is simply way overprized. A very bad marketing of Pentax imho.

I'm banking on two things. First off, that Pentax is going to build that grip that has all those seals to take that extra beating, and that if it fails based within the realm of their description of weather-sealing, that yes, they're on the hook.

As for the facts of how often I use my camera in the rain? A lot more this year than I used it in fair weather. Admittedly, I'm probably more the exception than the norm for this, but I trust that Pentax has got the weather-sealing figured out more so than other companies providing Pentax-fitted accessories. And based on my experience with the k-7, grip and weather-sealed lenses in everything from light sleet to heavy rains, the extra money was well spent.

And like I said in my earlier post, it all depends on your uses. If the grip is overpriced in your opinion and for your uses, good enough for you. Because I do use my gear in foul weather and I do like having the extra weight on the body to balance out the 16-50 & 50-135, the cost of the Pentax grip and the fact that I do believe they'll stand behind their products when used together makes the added price worth while to me.

If I was using the grip indoors only, or only in fair weather, then I wouldn't worry about it.

[knoxploration]

You're exactly the kind of people of whom big players make their money... For as long as consumers will be ready to blindly pay premium prices for the BRAND name, manufacturers will continue own us doggy-style with premium prices...

One could easily turn that statement around 180 degrees:

You're exactly the kind of people of whom fly-by-nights make their money... For as long as consumers will be readily accept cheap knockoffs to save a few bucks, unidentifiable third parties will continue to churn out shoddy, unwarranted replicas with no recourse if they fail or damage the genuine product they're attached to...

Of course, the truth is somewhere in between our two statements. There are plenty of third-party knockoffs that are close to as good quality as the originals, and I've even known a few to be better than the products they copied. Equally though, many of them are incredibly poor quality, with all the attention paid to mimicking the visual properties of the product, and none to the quality of its interior components, functionality, or safety.

The truth of the matter is that it's a crapshoot, and what you get may save you money, or it may cost you money. One thing's for sure - it's completely unfair to compare the price of a product that a manufacturer had to pay to research, develop, and make to comply with the laws of the countries in which it is sold with one where the counterfeiter piggybacked off the development efforts of another company, and quite likely didn't take any efforts to comply with local laws either.

[Sakura]

One could easily turn that statement around 180 degrees:

The truth of the matter is that it's a crapshoot, and what you get may save you money, or it may cost you money. One thing's for sure - it's completely unfair to compare the price of a product that a manufacturer had to pay to research, develop, and make to comply with the laws of the countries in which it is sold with one where the counterfeiter piggybacked off the development efforts of another company, and quite likely didn't take any efforts to comply with local laws either.

That is only partly truth. There is always a break-even point. Of course the developers make costs developing a product and have to make a profit on each item to break even.

But let me tell you a story about the first electric iron that Philips Netherlands marketed way in the past.
They tried to sell it with a normal profit per item, but almost no one would bye it, it was to expensive.
After a while one of the salesmen at Philips suggested to make only 1,5 guilders (something like a halve dollar at the present exchange value) per iron.
Everyone started laughing and called him crazy. But after a while, the stock was piling up, they decided to go for it.
Till the present day, it still is the most single solled item in the long history of Philips, and they made a huge profit at the and of the line.

Pentax could easely do the same with it's grip. I am sure that regarding production costs they make al least some 400% profit per grip, and i am convinced that the develouping costs wil be very low. Lets be honest, it is nothing more than a box with some connectors, some switches and some wiring, every idiot could develoup it and draw the blueprints of it on a empty corner of yesterdays paper.

If they would reduce the profits per single item and would sell there grip for lets say $50, i am sure that almost anyone would buy a grip for there cam. The problem with a dedicated accu in a cam like the K7 is the point that it may runs empty in the middle of lets say you're holliday.
With a grip you can run to the local drugsstore and buy a handfull of AA battery's and continue shooting.

At the present policy of Pentax regarding its grip price, a lot of people (including me) will buy an extra accu for there cam. Pentax won't make any profit of all that extra accu's that all the pentax owners buy.
If Pentax would sell there grip for something about the same price as an extra accu, i am convinced almost no one would buy an accu, but would buy a grip.

[Sakura]

Last week i finally recieved the 3rd-party grip from DX

DX-3rd party grip



I am very glad i bought this 3rd-party grip. Build quality is very high, finishing is absolutely not noticably different of the K-7 itself, included the paint-spotted-black plastick housing. Only differince i can find is a slightly different font on the button with the text "ISO"
All the buttons have the same touch and feel of the K-7.
Inside the grip is a steel plate with the tripod mount, so it is very sturdy.
It fits like a glove on the camera, and has steel pins for it. No movement whatsoever between the K7 and the grip.

And yes, i know it lacks weather sealing, but lets be honest, for the price of the original grip i can buy 5 DX-3rd-party grips, so for my break-even point i have 4 to spare

[knoxploration]

And yes, i know it lacks weather sealing, but lets be honest, for the price of the original grip i can buy 5 DX-3rd-party grips, so for my break-even point i have 4 to spare

The genuine D-BG4 can be had new for under $200 without any rebates or coupons, so really you can only get three fake grips for the price of one new one. That means you have two to spare... plus the risk to your vastly more expensive camera body from using a clone. Equally, you likely have no recourse if the grip fails in a month or two, except to buy another.

Which isn't to say it's necessarily the wrong choice - just that it's a gamble.

I'm surprised that they can get away with selling it, to be honest - it's clearly a ripoff of Pentax's design right down to the position of every last screw.

[pop4]

The genuine D-BG4 can be had new for under $200 without any rebates or coupons, so really you can only get three fake grips for the price of one new one. That means you have two to spare... plus the risk to your vastly more expensive camera body from using a clone. Equally, you likely have no recourse if the grip fails in a month or two, except to buy another.

It depends where you live; not everyone lives in America. For me,

Getting the genuine D-BG4 from B&H: ~$310 AUD (That's 25% of what I paid for my K-7...)
Getting the genuine D-BG4 locally: ~$370 AUD

Getting my DealExtreme battery grip: ~$61 AUD.

[Paulc1964au]

It is hard to justify buying the original based on prices for the after market, ordered mine on Saturday and its been shipped today so i am looking forward to testing it out when it arrives