MB-D80 battery grip not working properly...power issue

[Nicholas Natteau]

A few days ago, I purchased an MB-D80 battery pack and the brand new AA batteries run out after only 10 minutes of use!

What's going on with this unit? I have a battery grip for a Nikon D300 and never had that problem!

My AA batteries are brand new, just purchased yesterday. Six of them show up at 50% of after only 10 minutes. The remaining six AA batteries in my 12-battery package show up at 20% of battery life after no use at all!

Anyone else experience this problem???

[Rexbron!]

My initial reaction is to ask you this: is that shooting video or taking stills? Video is far more power demanding and will drain your batteries faster.

[Nicholas Natteau]

Hi Rexbron,

Thanks for your reply. Actually, you're right, yes. I did do some video shooting but not a lot really. Just a question of minutes. I don't think I shot for more than 10 minutes. But I was using regular AA Duracell batteries. Does that make a difference? Would you recommend only using 2 Nikon LE batteries for the battery grip instead of regular AA batteries?

[mhood]

I now have two new impact batteries that say they replace the Nikon EN-EL3e but won't take a charge in the MH-18a charger that came with my D90 and won't even turn on the D90...it simply doesn't read them at all. Either there's a bad batch of the impact batteries out there or there's something different about the D90...