For awhile I've been going a little nuts with the vertical grip (MB-D10) for my D300 having intermittent trouble. It'd dock okay but the batteries wouldn't register so I didn't get the 8fps and of course I didn't get the extended battery life.

I recharged & tested all the AA Powerex cells, and they all registered fine.

BUT I finally set aside some solid testing time and used the grip until it started failing (much too quickly) and _then_ retested the cells and sure enough one showed up as dead.

So, I'm pretty sure the problem was a bad AA cell (1 out of 8 but since they are wired in series it doesn't take much). I'll hope for the best from here and if anyone else has a similar issue perhaps this can be a clue.--David

David, That is the problem with AA batteries. It only takes one.

Well, it still seems to be less trouble than carrying a D3 battery & charger just to power the vertical grip, but perhaps I'll come around:-)

--David

Hi everyone,

Here is a partially related question: having a D3OO for over a year now, I've found that it's firing rate was not as high as expected (something around 2-3 fps in CH mode, shooting raw+jpeg or raw, in manual focus mode to suppress any problem linked to aufocusing). This was bugging me a little. After having a D90 in my hands, this is bugging me much more: even in Raw+jpg, the D90 is firing faster, close to 5fps. I've been browsing through the menus and manual, looking for settings to change to increase the fps in the D300, but found none, except going to jpg only.
Do the D300 owners have a higher fps in raw+jpg? If so what could be the setting to change ? Or should I consider sending the D300 to Nikon for a check-up ?
Or is there no other option than buying a MB-D10 to reach a higher fps with the D300 in raw + jpg mode ?

Michel

Michel,
Do you have mirror delay, setting D9, turned on by accident? This would slow your frame rates way down. Had that happen recently at a wedding and had to think about what I recently changed in my settings that would cause that.

Hi John,

No, d9 is OFF.
And I go to 6 fps allright when shooting jpegs, so it has to be more of a processing thing than mechanical.

Michel

I found the reason: I'm in 14-bit NEF, so the max rate is 2.5 fps. It was in the manual ...
So another question, for which I haven't found a clear answer in the manual: is the fps still blocked at 2.5 with the MB-D10 when shooting 14-bits ?

Michel

Michel--Glad you got it sorted! I'd guess that 14-bit would not be any faster with the vertical grip, but I've never experimented. If no one else has the answer I'll give it a try when I get a chance.--David