![[Editorial] Why Does The Nikon MB-D12 Cost So Much?](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/large-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/mb-d12-cost_jpg.webp)
The Nikon D800 was just announced and the 36mp powerhouse is being sold at the extremely reasonable price of $3000. Like many photographers, I planned to buy a D800 and the grip together. Once again Nikon has created a proprietary grip for the D800, the MB-D12. The biggest surprise was that this grip is double the price of the most expensive grip for the previous camera. Why?
Why do you need a vertical grip anyway?
There are a couple of reasons to purchase a vertical grip with your camera. The first is battery life. With the vertical grip your camera can now hold 2 batteries which will double the life of the camera. If you are in a jam and run out of charged batteries you can use the included AA battery pack adapter to power your camera will standard AA batteries. Although having these extra battery options is convenient, it is not the main reason that I like having a vertical grip. As a wedding photographer that shoots for 8-10 hours at a time, the vertical grip makes shooting far more comfortable. Without a grip, vertical images require that I hold my right elbow high in the air to take an image. When you do this you are actually holding the weight of the camera with your back in a very unnatural way. After hours of holding up a camera with a 70-200mm lens this way you will experience major back pain.
The vertical grip allows me to keep my right elbow down, pressing against my chest, when I take vertical images. This position relieves all of the pressure from my back and I can shoot all day without issue.
Why we need another proprietary grip
Nikon decided to change the shape of the D800 (from the D700) which means that the older Mb-D10 grip wouldn't fit on the newer camera. Because of this redesign Nikon built the MB-D12. Nikon had the opportunity to put new features into the grip like bluetooth, wifi, gps, or a radio trigger but they didn't. From what I have read, the grip is the exact same as every previous grip Nikon has made. Ok, no big deal, right? One would probably think that this grip would cost about $250 since it is the exact same thing as the last grip. That would be fine. But shockingly, it does not. No, instead it costs about $500. Yesterday it was $500 on B&H Photo Video and today it is $450. On Nikon's website it is $616! Who knows what it will actually cost once it is released.
The knockoff grips
To make the price of the Mb-D12 look even more absurd, let's look at the knockoff grip market. The Nikon D7000 camera body sells for $1299.00 and the matching MB-D11 grip for $219.00. This price seems pretty reasonable until you find out that China has created a knockoff version of the MB-D11 that sells for $42.00. This "fake" grip is so well made that even though I owned a real one as well, I couldn't tell that it was was fake. Check out the full story on that fiasco here.
If China can make a grip that is almost the exact same quality, ship it to the to the other side of the world, pay Amazon a percentage of each sale, and then ship it to your house for $42 and still make a profit, why does Nikon's version cost 12 times more? The "Nikon" name is worth a lot but not that much.
On the bright side
This huge jump in price opens up the door for 3rd party companies to create not just an equivalent grip, but a far superior grip with some ground breaking new features for a significantly cheaper price. Imagine if you could get an MB-D12 with a GPS receiver or a Pocket Wizard build in for $399. Patrick Hall suggested another innovative idea over a year ago: allow the vertical grip to add extra power to the on-camera SB900! Any company who could produce this would make a massive profit and consumers would still be saving $100. Let's hope that Nikon's decision to charge a premium for a standard, boring battery grip will open up the doors for innovation in this market. Hopefully it will work out for customers in the end, but I cannot wait. I will be paying the premium to have the camera and the grip from Nikon because I hate shooting on a camera without a vertical grip... So maybe Nikon actually knows what they are doing.
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I have a cheap 60$ grip on my d300 since 2008. After near 230 000 shots with the camera still no problems with it. I changed the rubber grips on the body, recently the shutter and the mirror lifting mechanism, but the grip has still his rubbers in place and works fine. I will upgrade 100% to the D800 but I ma thinking again to put the same brand chinese grip if the price is that or there is no kit option for body and grip thogether for less moony on the grip if bought as a pacage
Imagine if you could do this with the normal Nikon Grip and not loose any grip functionality or ergonomics!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U4tLr7gnUM
Insanely instant flash recycle time....though I have to wonder how the camera buffer could handle that rate of data and how long it would take for your flash head to simply melt. :)
So I just got an email from Amazon saying that they now have a delivery date for the D800 I ordered... January 4-January 8, 2013!?!? WTH!? Hopefully they're just overestimating but I was expecting arrival to be in a month or two. What gives?
Hmmm.. So Nikon unveils the body for $1,000 less than was anticipated and they offer the "optional" battery grip for $250 more than what we think it should be and we somehow feel jipped?
Had they just offered the body and grip as a "kit" you couldn't buy separately virtually everybody would have been thrilled to get both the body and the grip for $3500 all in...
Bottom line, Nikon is going to charge, like any other company, as much as it can for what it has to offer... They realize they run a risk of losing customers and lets be real here, nobody has to pay it.. If you don't like what Nikon offers, go buy an Olympus or Pentax or something..
You have a right to not buy just like they have a right to offer up the grip at any price that they want..
With that all said.. The grip is too expensive... :)
In Canada you can get the grip for $400 at vistek.ca so it's a bit easier for me to swallow.
i got mine for that price in USA at Perfect Light Camera in Idaho.
Once it actually ships, I don't think the MB-D12 will be considerably more expensive than the MB-D10. Nikon Japan lists both grips for an identical MSRP of 40,000 yen in their official catalog. However, street price on the MB-D10 in Japan is 27,500 yen (about US$348 at current exchange) and in the US that grip sells for $235 right now. Th e difference between the Japan and US street price is primarily due to the strong yen. A 40,000 yen MSRP equals about $506, which is probably the basis for Nikon USA's pricing estimate which trickled down to the pre-order prices at known retailers like B&H.
As a point of reference, the MB-D12 is being sold on a pre-order basis in Japan for 34,000 yen, about $430.
However, I suspect that Nikon market analysts know that the US market will probably balk at $500 for a grip that does no more than its $235 predecessor. So they will set a price more in line with the MB-D10 and accept a lower profit margin than on products they sell in Japan, just like they do with the MB-D10 and every other lens and accessory they sell, because they have to.
I would just wait until they are actually in stock, and the Nikon distribution network and retailers have found a reasonable equilibrium. I suspect it'll settle in somewhere south of $300 in short order and will get a little cheaper after that. But what do I know?
I would guess that it's all about margins. There isn't much margin for a retailer (or manufacturer) on the camera bodies, so they have to make money somewhere else...like vertical grips. It's not even that they're gouging you on the grip, it's just that they're taking a thin margin on the camera so don't have incentive to discount anything else and still remain in business.
For once we Canadians are getting much better pricing. http://www.vistek.ca/store/DSLRAccessories/261528/nikon-mbd12-multipower...
that's how much I paid for mine at Perfect Light Camera in Idaho.
The third party folks are going to have a field day designing their grips for the D800 and given the opportunity to produce a more versatile model than Nikon's own; I am going to wait! Ed.
I bought one of the grips, because I wanted it now and didn't want to wait for one of the chinese knock-offs (which i'd prefer to buy, actually) I like the Nikon grip well enough, and though i think $400 is WAY too much to spend on it, I rationalized it because I honestly think Nikon sold us the D800 body for $500 (or more) cheaper than they really should have. The new Canon 5D iii is $3500, after all, right? anyhow, after pulling the grip out of the Nikon box, I noticed one very interesting thing, and that is: IT IS MADE IN CHINA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My D800 is made in Japan!
I hate vertical grips.
Lighter weight and smaller size are very important to me.
An AfterMarket grip would have to offer a lot more than low price.
such as:
hold two EN-15 batteries or a much more powerful AfterMarket battery
add LCD
add GPS
add WiFi transmitter
add other camera controls
And loose "water" protection.
And how the hell will you connect data on Grip LCD from the camera? connect GPS and wifi? using cables?More camera controls? If the camera interface connector don't support it won't add more than what you get with the official...
All those fake grip use mostly cheap plastic (not same color as body) and have cheaper dials/bouton.A photo shoot made on the beach with some wind : grips still working -> D3s, D300s+Nikon one; all the other "fake" ones go the grip dials stuck with sand and needed a hell of cleanup to get them working... go and get some drops on water in them and explain how your "grip" fried your 3000$ camera...