Testing Vivitar MB-D12 with a Nikon D800 - Mechanical and Battery Life in Video Mode
I bought this product mainly to increase the run time of a D800 camera. It performs this task well. With one third party battery, tested at 89 minutes continuous video runtime in the camera body and a second third party battery, tested at 80 minutes continuous video runtime, in this product, the continuous video runtime was measured to be 159 minutes.<br /><br />As a point of reference a single standard Nikon EN-EL15 will power the D800 video mode recording for 120 minutes.<br /><br />The downside of the product is its construction quality, mainly materials. The unit is constructed of plastic, perhaps a durable plastic, we will see. Mounted on a tripod without this product directly to the D800 tripod socket, with the camera equipped with a Tamron f2.8 70-200mm zoom, the end of the lens depressed 2mm when a force of 34oz was applied at the end of the lens. Under the same conditions but with this product attached to the body and to the tripod, the deflection was 6mm. The lack of stiffness is a bit of a concern but it is not completely clear that this product is worse in this regard than the D800 with an equivalent Nikon product.<br /><br />And finally, here is the reason for the five stars:<br />The product comes with two battery adapters, one for a standard EN-EL15 battery and a second to run the camera on 8 AA batteries. I tested the longevity of the video mode using 8 Panasonic eneloop AA batteries (available from Amazon). The D800 recorded video continuously for 200 minutes on only the 8 AA batteries
Rating: 5 stars