Ownuser Battery Grip Review (Pentax K110D/K100D)
By J.Milo of j.meelo photography
First off, I want to mention that I'm not affiliated with any retailer, distributor, or the original maker of this battery grip. I'm just doing this on my own will to help other Pentaxians. My review and comments are based on my own experience using the battery grip. That being said I've had the battery grip for about a week now and have shot about 250-300 shots with the battery grip installed. I've used it at home, when I was out and about, and lastly at my daughter's first birthday party.
The battery grip attaches to the K110D/K100D body using the existing tripod mount, which the battery grip also has its own so not to lose the mount entirely. The fitment is actually quite good and the transition from body to battery is quite clean with no gaps between the two. Power and shutter button controls from the battery grip are connected using 2 wires that connect to the body’s remote and DC input at the side panel. Personally I find this to be an undesirable design; however there would be no other way to make this connection due to the limitations of the K110D/K100D. It would have been nice if the panel could have been covered like the Dicain grips for the previous *ist D bodies. With the shutter and power wires connected, the panel door now has to stay open, causing the panel door and wires to be exposed and out there waiting for an accident to happen. The original design of the door actually helps out because the door doesn’t sway back and forth freely but rather extends and somewhat locks into place. It takes a minute amount of force to open and close this door. However, when using the battery grip, I found that the exposed wires and open panel did not interfere nor cause any handling problems, but like I said it’s still out there waiting for an accident to happen. Another issue with the door panel being open is that the PC/Video connection is now exposed to elements such as dust, dirt, and moisture. With the K110D/K100D not being sealed like its big brother (K10D) this may cause problems for some.
The actual build quality of the grip is quite good. I’m not exactly sure of the exact build materials used but the entire grip seems to be made with good quality hard plastics which the colour and texture very closely matches the Pentax body. The location to hold the grip in a vertical position is covered in a rubber cover which is attached to the grip very well with no fraying edges. Again the rubber material closely matches the original rubber grips used on the Pentax body. The wires and connectors used are also good quality giving me enough confidence that the wiring is attached to the camera body properly. The shutter buttons are well placed for both left and right handed shooters. However, I did find that the shutter buttons to be a little stiff at first but nothing that I couldn’t get used to. The shutter buttons function exactly like the original shutter button where depressing the button halfway focuses then fully depressing releases the shutter. The battery grip retains the ability to connect a wired remote and a dc power input. At the time of this review I haven’t been able to use the two functions. These inputs are covered with little rubber seals to prevent dust and water entering. However, these rubber covers are easily lost as I’ve already lost the remote input cover. There are various buttons and switches that turn on the shutter buttons, which battery magazine (left or right) to use, and the power. These switches aren’t flimsy at all and don’t seem like I’ll be losing them any time soon. Now the magazines that hold the double A batteries feel very cheaply made and when I install and remove batteries I feel like I’m going to snap them in half. Keep reading below for more info on these magazines because I feel like this is where they skimp out on quality here.
To me the main purpose of this battery grip are two things. The first is being able to pack in more battery power, which it does (12 x AA batteries). The second is the ability to use it as a vertical grip. When using it as a vertical grip I feel that it performs poorly. The good things I found were that the grip was chunky enough so that I wasn’t going to drop it and the shutter button works the same way as the original. Unfortunately there is no dial/jog control to adjust shutter and/or aperture which is a shame yet this is caused by the design limitation of the K110D/K100D. I normally find myself also looking for the arrow buttons with my thumb to relocate my auto focus point as well as the AE-L button. In the vertical position, it is nearly impossible to reach these buttons unless you have very large hands. To compensate I had to reach for these buttons using my left hand/thumb. Additionally, when holding it in the vertical position my thumb now rests on the back of the battery doors/magazines which made me feel that I might accidentally release them. However, these doors do have a locking mechanism to prevent this but the entire ergonomics of my thumb placement just didn’t feel right. The grip has a switch to turn on/off the shutter buttons which is a good feature so that one doesn’t accidentally press these buttons when not needed. The power switch may seem a little strange at first and may cause problems. There are 3 settings on the power switch; A, B, and Off. The A and B settings is where you select the power source to use. The A setting is to be used when using the battery magazines that accept the rechargeable battery packs (i.e. Pentax D-L150, Minolta NP-400, etc). The B setting would be for the double A magazine and batteries which my kit was packed with. I once accidentally put it in the A setting and the battery grip still functioned the same. I used it like this for maybe 5 minutes with about 20-30 shots taken. Still, they recommend using the proper setting so I suggest the same. The final switch is to select which battery magazine to use. The battery grip comes with 2 magazines that go into the grip. You can use either the left side or right side independently as well as both in sync.
Packing more battery power/lifetime is what seems to be the winner here. I’ve used the same 12 AA Sanyo Eneloops in the grip for about 1 week with 250-300 shots taken and the battery notification LED has yet to change from green to red. I suspect I should be able to get another 400-500 more shots easily and possibly another week of shooting, maybe even more. The battery grip allows me to save space in the camera bag because I no longer have to carry extra batteries, but then again the grip takes up more space. The extra battery power/life allows minimal downtime which I know I cherish because timing is something that is very precious in photography. Although having the ability to pack more power and lifetime the battery magazines have a very poor design. They feel very flimsy and those with heavy hands should take note here because I felt that I would break these things in half just by inserting and removing the batteries. Normally, the spring end of the battery magazines are where the negative terminal of the battery would be placed. Not in this case, both springs are located at the same end. I found this annoying because the positive terminal of every other battery would always get caught in the spring and inserting/removing the battery became more difficult then it needed to be. On the opposite end of the springs was where the battery connections would be daisy chained with a metal contact that connects the two batteries. Beware that this metal contact can slide out if you are not careful. If it does slide out it can easily be placed back in its original location. The main reason this piece can come out is so that you can use CRV3 batteries instead of AA batteries. Since the CRV3’s are already daisy chained and slightly longer, removing this metal contact tab provides the extra space required.
Since the camera body is now being powered by the DC input in the side panel the camera no longer reports back battery levels at all. Although the K110D/K100D is notoriously inconsistent in reading battery levels, I’m not sure if this matter to anyone. However, it would still be nice to know the battery levels. The battery grip does have a battery level LED indicator which is very limited by displaying only a green or red light. A green light would mean enough power and red meaning low power. Another downfall of being powered through the DC input is that the camera no longer retains certain settings. The main settings not being remembered would be the most recent shutter and aperture settings. When the camera is powered down then powered back up, the shutter and aperture settings are reset. However, I did notice that at times that the ISO setting would be lost in some occasions. For those concerned, the camera still retains the main menu settings as well as then function (fn) settings.
After shooting with the battery grip and post processing the pictures in LightRoom I can safely say that I haven’t seen any problems to image quality (i.e. VPN, banding, etc). As well, auto focus speed had not sped up nor slowed down due to the use of the battery grip. Even if there was differences in auto focus speed it would be difficult to provide consistent results as I don’t have the tools to precisely compare the times. If it is relevant, below are the main setups that I have been using the past week.
My recommendation is that if you are looking for more battery power and longevity, this battery grip should fill in that insufficiency you are looking for. If you are like me and tend to shoot the majority of your shots in the portrait orientation, there are sacrifices that you need to be willing to make. However, the use of the vertical grip has alleviated a lot of the pressure and stress from my shoulder. If portability and weight is an issue for you then look elsewhere. The grip equipped with 12 AA batteries almost doubles up the weight of your photographic tool. Size is also dramatically increased; however I did find that the grip helps balance out the feel when using longer/heavier lenses and when the camera is around your neck attached to the neck strap. Overall, I spent about $110USD on it and will continue to use it for the additional power and the somewhat vertical grip capabilities.
Thanks for reading and hopefully another 3rd party company can revisit the shortcomings of the ownuser battery grip.
Please note there were a few things that I was unable to test.
-The use of an external 6v DC power input because I don’t own one.
-The remote control input because I don’t own one.
-CRV3 batteries because I use Eneloop rechargeable AA batteries.
-The use of other types of batteries because I don’t have the optional battery magazines nor do I own other types of batteries.
