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Problem with Vivitar MB-D15 clone


mark_stephan2

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Friends of ours purchased a Promaster branded battery grip for the Nikon D7100 I sold them a few weeks ago. The kit included 2 Promaster batteries. After charging the batteries and attaching the grip to the camera powered on and worked fine for two weeks before the grip installation using the Nikon battery supplied with the camera. After attaching the grip it worked fine for a short period of time, a few days and maybe 150 - 200 pictures and then the D7100 went dead. I now have the grip, batteries and the D7100 and was asked to try the combo on my newly purchased D7200 but I'm afraid to. The D7100 doesn't power up with my genuine Nikon battery or the batteries supplied with the grip. Just curious if 3rd party batteries or the electronics in the grip shorted something out? I'm feeling bad for our friends because I was the original owner of the D7100. I used the money from the sale to purchase a D7200. I only used the D7100 with genuine Nikon batteries and I didn't own or use a grip with it. The grip and batteries were purchased locally. What would you do? Who would you send it to for repair? I'm afraid Nikon won't touch it because it happened with 3rd party gear. My wife is afraid this incident will hurt our relationship with friends if I don't do something about it although I feel that I'm not at fault. So far the only good thing is the store will refund the purchase for the grip and batteries kit.
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Issue of course, if you can't get the camera working, is that to keep the friends, you'll likely have to buy the camera back or replace it. (KEH just now, $619). I would first get hold of a new Nikon or Wasabi (or other well thought of after market battery) and see if the camera will work. If it does, the issue is the grip. I would then give the new battery to the friends and tactfully suggest that they might want to return the grip, as you never used one and can't take further responsibility for their camera if it is used. I had a similar situation, and in order to preserve a friendship (and actually a circle of friendships) bought back an item that worked perfectly when sold and came back broken and abused. Eventual repair was more than the selling price! Best of luck sorting it out.
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I would NOT put the grip nor battery on your D7200. If the grip or battery is at fault, you don't want it to ruin another camera.

 

First I would do as Rick suggests.

- Remove the grip (to eliminate it from the equation), then see if the Nikon battery will power up the camera. If it works, you/he is lucky.

 

Nikon may fix it, but it could be $$$, as they could/will say cause of damage was the non-Nikon grip or battery. And you will need this statement in writing from Nikon repair. That could be your position against the manufacturer/importer of the grip, to collect repair cost.

But you/he would be out the repair cost, until/IF you/he could collect from the grip mfg/importer.

Standard procedure would be for them to denney your claim. Then you would have to take them to small claims court, to try to collect.

And this may be limited by warranty statements that limit their exposure to refund of the purchase price of the item, not for damages that their item may cause.

 

difficult situation with no easy solution

gud luk

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If - big if - the 3rd party grip or use thereof caused the camera to fail, then basically you're off the hook Mark. Since you didn't supply the grip.

 

Does the D7100 show any sign of powering up, or is it completely dead? A camera not getting any power at all from its battery will have a dim and fuzzy viewfinder. If the viewfinder is normal, then the camera is getting some power, but maybe the shutter release is shorted or open-circuit. This could happen if the grip contacts (on the camera) have been damaged.

 

The only advice I can give is to try and ascertain 1) if the D7100 really is faulty and not made inoperative by user error, and 2) the probable cause of the fault.

 

Best outcome for you would be if any fault could definitely be attributed to the grip, batteries or user error on your friends' part.

 

Of course, if the camera just co-incidentally decided to go faulty right after you sold it, then you're still left with a dilemma.

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You sold a friend a working camera and your friend used the camera for a couple of weeks. So far, so good. Your friend should have noted that it worked as expected during that time.

 

Your friend decided to get a battery grip for it, which is fine. Your friend goes to a local dealer and buys a compatible grip, which is also fine. The grip worked for a few days and then the camera will no longer start.

 

To begin with, I am sorry for your situation. Knowing you have done nothing wrong, it does not feel good to be considered responsible.

 

How come your friends do not consider the grip faulty and have the dealer solve the problem? The dealer has sold them a product which is claimed to be compatible but turned out to cause problems, which should either be covered by the warranty for the grip or the dealer’s goodwill. The dealer should also test the remaining stock in order to prevent other customers from ending up in the same situation.

 

You wrote that the camera did not start with your genuine Nikon battery, was that the one that they got with the D7100 (with or without the grip) or the new one you got with your D7200 tested without the grip? I hope it was the former.

 

Test the D7100 with your D7200 battery (no grip). What happens, does it work, if not does it make the optical viewfinder brighter? Hopefully, it starts and works normally. If so, recharge their battery (the one you sold them) and try that without the grip.

 

If the D7100 works with your D7200 battery, the grip makes the camera drain the battery when turned off. Lithium Ion batteries are sensitive to too low Voltage. If discharged below a certain threshold, they will no longer recharge and are dead.

 

There was a thread here not too long ago about a Nikon camera that drained its battery overnight. While rare, it can apparently happen. Hopefully, that is their problem. If that is the case, they should get a refund for the grip and its batteries and a new original Nikon battery from the dealer that sold them the grip.

 

Personally, I would not test their grip on another camera although I would not mind trying their three batteries in another camera. If they are flat (or even shorted) they should not do any damage as there is no power involved. If they still hold a charge, they are not shorted and would therefore not do damage to another camera.

 

Let us know what you try and what happens.

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try the combo on my newly purchased D7200 but I'm afraid to

Under no circumstances would I mount that grip on the D7200 - or use the Promaster batteries. I've read a few times that third party batteries worked fine in a D7100 but failed to be recognized in a D7200 (allegedly because Nikon made changes in the firmware to inhibit use of third-party batteries). I would not risk anything but go with the dead D7100, grip, and (dead?) batteries to the dealer and have them take the risk of trying various things with new batteries, another camera, or another grip. If you do it on your own, with your own equipment, you just take the risk of damaging it.

 

 

The D7100 doesn't power up with my genuine Nikon battery

That's a bad sign - but just to make sure I understand correctly: is that with the genuine battery in the grip or in the camera? And is it the D7100 battery or did you already try one of your D7200 ones?

 

I still use Wasabi batteries in my Ricoh GR but that's also now the only place I use non-OEM batteries. I had one third-party battery for the Sony NEX-6 - worked fine, also later in the Son A7. Until I had trouble extracting it from the camera - the battery had started to expand. I probably had two dozen OEM batteries for the various Nikon and Sony cameras; none of them ever had an issue. One third-party battery - and it turns out to be bad.

Edited by Dieter Schaefer
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Also, you could try to charge the batteries in another (your D7200) charger, it happene before that the problem was with a charger, which inicates the batteries are charge, but they are not..

The try the batteries in the D710, or your D7200, Dead batteries do not harm a camera ...

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