Vello Grip BG-N17 for D500

I just wanted to post and give my impression of the Vello battery grips for others that may be on the fence about them. First, I will say that I have only ever owned and used the original Nikon grips for the D200, D300, D700, D600, D800 and D7200. The original grips always worked flawlessly for me and I have never had any complaints about their construction and operation. Where I do have an issue with them, is the price that Nikon expects to get for them. So when I recently purchased a D500 and saw that the Nikon grip for this camera was $600 in Canada, I said that was it! No way I was going to pay that kind of money for a battery grip. So I looked into the third party Chinese grips, and the Vello seemed to always get fair reviews. So I bought one from B&H for $90 ($111 CDN).

First impressions before attaching it to the camera, were that it looked very well constructed, but also cheaper at the same time. Mostly because it is made of plastic. The appearance looks good and the material used on the outside appears to be the same as what Nikon uses. I wanted to wait awhile and use it for a couple of weeks before I made any decisions about it. After using it for awhile now, I have not had one issue with it. Everything seems to work just as it did with all my genuine Nikon grips. I stays on tight and also comes with both the Nikon battery compartment and one for 8 AA batteries. It seems to have all the same controls in the same places.

So my conclusion is, if money is no object for you, and paying $600 for a grip does not bother you, then get the Nikon grip. Otherwise, I would recommend just getting the Vello and saving a ton of money. Even if it does develop an issue, I could purchase 6 of them for the price of one Nikon grip. I have also heard that Vello are very responsive and helpful if you do experience issues, although I cannot verify that myself.

My hopes are that more and more people will start buying these third party grips, and hopefully, convince Nikon to price their grips more fairly and competitively. If Vello can make a plastic one for $90, then surely Nikon can make their metal grips for the $200 to $300 range.

Just my 2 cents.

I used Vello grip on Canon camera for years and never had any issue with it and it even looked good.

I've got a couple of Meike's on a D7100 and D500, so agree with after market grips. Same sort of impressions you had with the Vello version. My Meike for the D7100 is over three years old and is perfectly ok, so has been superb value.

Nikon has been giving grips away free with the D500 lately in the States, Will be interested in what you think of the IQ with noise etc

Dave

Bummer, in the USA you can often get the Nikon one for free in a package deal with the camera.

Tim - When I first got my D500 no aftermarket grips were available (I contacted Vello direct and they weren't able to give me a release date for the grip).I shoot quite a bit from the vertical format, so it was imperative I had a grip ASAP. So I was forced to lay out the money for the Nikon. I have used Vellos in the past, and like the other OPs I have had zero problems with the Vello grips (D7100, D7200). I certainly would "recommend one to my friends".