MB-D11 Multi Power Battery Pack For Nikon D7000

If you are shooting all day long event, wedding for example, with your Nikon D7000, MB-D11 may come very handy. MB-D11 multi-power battery pack simulates almost all the buttons of your Nikon D7000, gives you an extended battery life and provides an easy, comfort and stable holding of your camera in different orientations. Specially if you shoot portrait photographs most of the time, MB-D11 Battery Grip can make your life more easier. It will give you a nice grip and provides stability for a long day shooting. MB-D11 comes with two battery trays giving you an option of using either one Nikon EN-EL15 battery or AA batteries. You can also have a battery backup in the camera body as well.

MB-D11 Front view

The MB-D11 has a vertical shutter release button, shutter release button lock (you can lock the shutter release button to prevent an accidental press), main command dial (rear dial) and sub-command dial (front dial) that you find in a D7000 and it functions similar to the camera button as well. It also includes a multi-selector and an AE-L/AF-L button for an Autofocus exposure lock. The battery pack has the same magnesium alloy body and the weather/dust resistance as the Nikon D7000. The grip area and the bottom area is covered in a rubber and the bottom has a screw hole to use a tripod. Nikon D7000 itself has a nice grip around the camera body but MB-D11 adds an extra grip for your camera. It is made out of very high quality materials from Nikon products and it feels solid and sturdy with your camera.

MB-D11 Battery pack attached to Nikon D7000

I have seen some photographers who do not want to use it with their camera just because they look and feel ugly.  But personally, I think it adds a lot of benefits giving an extra battery life and an emergency backup for a long day shooting until your next recharge and it is well worth to spend $239.89 (price on Amazon as of writing this article).

The Nikon MB-D11 grip is a high quality accessory that improves the handling and the comfort of the D7000 to such a great degree that you don't want to take it off of your camera once you start using it. It makes the camera fit into larger hands even better and it's build quality matches the camera with a nice rubber grip which is very soft and feels good to hold.

Manfrotto 190XPROB 3 Section Aluminum Pro Tripod

If you are looking for a good tripod for a DSLR camera, Manfrotto is one of the good brand worth researching about. Manfrotto makes varieties of tripods for different purposes but you can select what works best for you and do in-depth research about it. If you are a serious amateur photographer or even new into photography, Manfrotto 190XPROB 3 Section Aluminum Pro Tripod may meet your requirement. It is an aluminum made lightweight, sturdy, stable and flexible tripod. You can carry it around easily and take anywhere because of it's light weight. Manfrotto tripod gives you an extra feature with it's unique center column which can be adjusted vertically or horizontally both. This unique design allows the photographer to use the center column horizontally as an extending arm or vertically up and down to adjust the photographer's height. When used horizontally, the center column can be turned 360 degrees around the tripod, making it useful for macro work, low-angle shooting, extreme balance points and off-center work. Also changing the central column from vertical to horizontal position and back to the vertical is easy. When the central column is extended vertically up to its highest limit, you can bend the central column to make it horizontal without taking the camera off of the ball head. This feature saves your time and makes switching between the framing and the positioning more easier than ever before.

Manfrotto 190XPROB 3 Section Aluminum Pro Tripod with Ball head

The lock mechanism of the tripod legs works great as well. It can be locked and released in just few seconds without much effort. In addition, each of the legs can be set to different angle for more flexible, versatile positioning and allows you to balance the tripod on an uneven surface. You can set each of the legs to a different spread angle over the tripod's center of gravity which allows you to adjust the tripod to different heights.

It is 48 inches tall with the center column closed, 57.5 inches tall with the central column fully extended and a ball head may add couple more inches. If your height is around 6 feet, this is a perfect tripod for you to see a viewfinder without bending. I like the fact that we can buy the tripod legs and ball head separately. This gives you the flexibility of understanding your need and determine which ball head serves you the best. It is one of the best tripod for all kind of photographers because of it's combination of the quality and the price.

Specifications

Minimum height : 3.3 inches Maximum Height : 57.5 inches Height without extended center column : 48 inches Load capacity : 11 pounds Material : Aluminum Weight : 4 pounds

Amazon Price : $132.89 (without the ball head)

Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control

Remote shutter release method will come handy when you want to capture a fireworks, do night photography or any other kind of long exposure shooting where the movement of the camera will be the reason to get blurred image. If you want to trigger the camera shutter remotely, you have two options; one is to use a wired remote shutter release cord and the other one is to use a wireless remote control device. Few months ago, I wrote a blog about Nikon MC-DC2 wired remote shutter release cord and today I want to write about my experience with the wireless remote control device, Nikon ML-L3, to remotely control the shutter release. There are a lot of rumors and speculations about using the wireless remote control but I will express my opinion based on my own experience about the accessory and get your feedback as well.

Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control

In the past few weeks, I read some reviews about the ML-L3 where reviewers mentioned that it has to have a proper line of sight with the camera IR sensor to trigger the camera shutter remotely otherwise the device won’t work. If you are buying it without knowing this limitation of the IR technology, you might be disappointed with your decision. I think it is a limitation of using any system that works in a Infrared technology that the line of sight is a must for it to work. If the remote is completely out of sight with the camera, it might not work at all but in my experience, I have worked it out by trying from different angle pointing towards the camera. And the other feature that many people are concerned about is it's Autofocus feature. There is no doubt that this remote is able to autofocus the lens before triggering the shutter but it will not re-focus if the shutter release button has already been pressed halfway down to focus the subject. To focus using a wireless remote control, it would be better to compose your shot but do not press the camera's shutter release button half way down to focus it but instead, use the wireless remote control unit.

When you purchase the device, it might not come with the instruction to properly setup and connect the device with the camera. Here is a brief instruction on how to sync your wireless remote control with your DSLR camera.

How to use ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control?

Nikon D90 Top View

To setup a wireless remote shutter with the camera, most of the Nikon DSLRs come with the menu option. If you go to the Custom Settings Menu (CSM) with the pencil icon, you will see the Release mode. This is where you can specify which method you want to use to release the shutter button. With the Nikon D90, its even easier than that. D90 and many other new DSLRs come with the release mode button just to the right side of the LCD panel. This button has a set timer icon and a wireless remote icon nearby. While pressing that button, you have to rotate the main command dial to change your release mode option. Nikon D90 gives you four different options when you rotate the command dial. You can choose for a single shot, continuous shooting, shoot in a timer mode or wireless remote mode. Once you change your release mode option to the wireless remote (it will display a wireless remote icon on the LCD), you are ready to use the wireless remote control to trigger the shutter remotely.

Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control supports Nikon P7000, D3000, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D7000, D70s, D80 & D90 Digital SLR Cameras.