Satechi LCD Timer Vertical Battery Grip for Nikon D80 and D90 with Remote Control

by JJC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 3 x 4 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B00192NV0Y
• Item model number: btgripmag
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 6, 2008

Product Description

LCD Timer Vertical Battery Grip for Nikon D80 makes photographing in a vertical position much easier and provides a better handling of your camera especially when you are using heavy lenses. The battery grip provides more energy for your camera than a normal storage battery would. The battery compartment holds either two lithium batteries (original or third-party manufacturer) or a battery magazine for six AA NiMh batteries. It is also equipped with a vertical-grip shutter button, dial, AE lock/FE lock button, and AF point selector button to enable exposure time setting etc. as well as the infrared remote sensor function. Continuous Shooting with set interval function (1 second-100 hours), Multiple Frame Function (up to 99 frames), Single Frame long exposure function can be set between 1/8000 of a second up to 100 hours.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The JND80 works great on Nikon D80 - Outstanding Professional Battery Grip, July 29, 2008

By 

Michael Zdyrko "Mike" (Camden, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Satechi LCD Timer Vertical Battery Grip for Nikon D80 and D90 with Remote Control (Electronics)

I was leery about ordering this grip as to what the other person said that you needed Canon batteries for this grip to work. I went to the Satechi site and checked it out and Satechi stated it was made for the Nikon D80 and you can use one or two Nikon D80 batteries (En-EL3e) made for it. So I ordered it and I am extremely happy I did.

It is very light weight compared to other grips, giving you the feeling of being cheap. It is not. It is solidly made. It holds one/two Nikon EN-EL3e lithium batteries (approx. 5000 shots) as well on 6 AA batteries (alkaline, NiMH, lithium or nickel-manganese)(approx. 480shots). It is made to shoot in large quantities or in low temperatures. It is equipped with a vertical-grip shutter button that has the feel of my Nikon D80 and operates the same way. It also has an AE Lock/FE lock button, main and sub-command dials to enable shooting in the same fashion as a horizontal grip of the D80. It also has the functions of exposure control: long exposure, long intermiten exposure time setting, etc. As well as an infrared receipt function. That's right, it comes with a remote similar to the Nikon remote EN-L3 but works at a greater distance. Note: The battery grip is not waterproof. So do not take a bath with it.

The battery compartment has a twist knob/dial that is turned slightly to the right to pop open the cover to add/change batteries etc., and locks quickly without having to remove grip from camera. Just make sure to turn the turn power off to camera before adding/exchanging the batteries. Comes with a AA batteries adaptor that can remain stored in the grip when not being used with batteries.

The grip has an LCD screen/monitor for showing the professional functions of the grip. Shows the calendar, date and time continuously. Does not drain the batteries as it runs on separate battery. It has Setting (Set) button, High Adjust button, Low Adjust button, Start/Pause Button, LCD Background Light Button, Grip On/Off switch, etc. Has a switch to allow you to use remote, and also to take time-lapse photography, shutter released time and set shoot number(s). You can shoot under bulb mode(B). That's right, all this on this grip. Has also a stop watch capabilities function too and you set the grip to shoot up 99 hours later after being set.

Found that the following usages the of the grip reduces the number of images that can be recorded: 1. Frequent usage of LCD monitor. 2. Holding the shutter button halfway down for too long a time. 3. Shooting using only AF mode.

I have nothing but good things to say about this grip. This is a ten star unit and I highly recommend it for Nikon D80 users. It does not add an excess amount of weight and looks like the camera came with it. Others who have seen my unit have asked me how much my Nikon D3 cost me. I smile and tell them this is a Nikon D80 with a Satechi grip. Love to see there mouths drop. Git-it. The price is right and the functions are fantastic. You will have to read the instruction pamphlet as there are many things this unit does/functions. Satechi did a great job. I highly recommend it's site ( [...])to check other remotes etc available for the Nikon D80 that can be ordered through [...]. I will stop as I do not know what else to say, it is the best buy of accessory for the Nikon D80 I got. It is now a permanent attachment to my D80.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It does work with the Nikon D90!!!!!!!!, October 16, 2008

By 

J. Hunter (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Satechi LCD Timer Vertical Battery Grip for Nikon D80 and D90 with Remote Control (Electronics)

I have been searching for a battery powered grip for my Nikon D90, but I thought the one manufactured by Nikon was waaaay to expensive. I was just about to give up hope when I came across this grip from Satechi. Every site I went to for reviews only listed it's compatibility with the Nikon D80. Then I just used common since. If they Nikon branded grip says it works with both the D80 and the D90, I figured this grip from Satechi had to work for both as well. Sure enough it works as advertised! It fits the D90 body seamlessly and looks like a Nikon factory grip.

The manual is poorly written, but you should be able to figure out most of the functions with a little trial and error. For the features and cost this is a great value, and if you have D90 go ahead an pick it up. No worries!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than a battery grip!, December 10, 2008

By 

Elmer Corder "ArkyMark" (Hot Springs, Arkansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Satechi LCD Timer Vertical Battery Grip for Nikon D80 and D90 with Remote Control (Electronics)

There are already a lot of good reviews for this product here, and you can count me as another person who is definitely pleased with this product - but by all means read through them anyway as they contain more technical detail than I'm going to go into...

I have owned a D80 for several months now and was interested in buying a "battery grip" for it for two main reasons - the ability to run two battery packs side-by-side for double the shooting time, and the ability to substitute 6 AA batteries in a pinch. The one that Nikon makes for it does that, as well as providing a secondary shutter release, front and rear command dials, and AE/AF Lock button. It also stores the original battery door inside it and provides an additional tripod mounting thread to replace the one it occupies. But that's pretty much where Nikon's seems to stop...

The Satechi LCD Timer Grip does all of that, and a lot more. It also includes an infrared remote (which sells as an additional item from Nikon), but the feature that really wowed me was the fact that it has a built-in stopwatch/timer that will allow you to program it for time-lapse photography! It can be set to shoot anywhere from once-a-second to once every 99-hours, 59-minutes and 59-seconds - and it can repeat this cycle up to 99 times. (It can only take one shot per "cycle", but repeat the cycle up to 99 times.) This is a delightful, unexpected bonus to find built into a battery grip, and it really adds a lot of creative potential to the way you can shoot!

When you set the shutter speed to "Bulb", you can use the remote control to hold the shutter open as long as you hold down the remote's button (count "One-Mississippi, Two-Mississippi ... " if you want) - the shutter will close when you release the remote's button. This allows it to be used like a wireless "cable-release" type trigger (though you do have to point the remote at the IR receiver on the front of the grip).

As others have noted, the manual is one of those where things seemed to get a little lost in translation, but I would say that puzzling the functions out is not quite as hard as trying to figure out how to set an LCD watch when you don't have the manual for it. The buttons are more logically labeled and along with what you can glean from the manual, it's fairly intuitive.

It DOES NOT require Canon batteries to work! (I have no idea where someone got that idea.) In fact, I run both the original battery that came with the camera along with two "second party" (non-Nikon) replacement batteries that I purchased separately, and they all work great. (I also bought this package : 2 Replacement Nikon EN-EL3e Batteries and Mini Battery Charger for Nikon D700, D300, D200, D90, D80, D70, D70s, D50 Digital SLR Cameras

Of course the original idea behind these things was to provide an additional "grip" to help you hold the camera better in the vertical (portrait) position, and then someone decided to stick some more batteries in there and provide some duplicate controls for shooting in that position to get the most out of it. But really, this grip takes it to a new level by adding the remote control and time-lapse capabilities on top of the standard features.

It was delivered promptly in perfect shape, and Satechi even contacted me to make sure it had been delivered OK and that I was satisfied with it. It removes from the camera easy enough, but I won't be doing that ... as another reviewer said, it's now a permanent part of my D80. (And don't forget it works on the newer D90 too.)

Bravo - Five-Stars - and Highly Recommended - Get yourself one! ('cause you can't have mine!)