Yes, as it's titled. Monday, I've gotta give the nikon parts dept. a call... to get the parts to replace my MB-D200 grips mounting gears.... yeah, stripped to hell. Removing it became a pain, hurting my hands... finally got it off, but was totally stripped... took it apart, this thing needs replacing .. period.
Mine just took a dump too. I had read the warnings about the mounting gears and hadn't stripped it, but the vertical shutter button died. Oh well, it lasted almost a year, that's long enough huh?
Well, I for one thank everyone on this forum. I skipped that accessory mostly because what all of you had to say about it! I even bought the RRS L-bracket for the camera only. I wish you well in working with Nikon and hope it all works out. I remember my old Nikon F and I could have pounded tent stakes with that thing. I killed two camera in the snow in Norway and that old Nikon...well I hope it works out.
Isn't the grip supposed to be attached forever to the camera ?
There has been a survey on another Nikon site I am a member of and nobody has ever had a problem with the grip, while everybody was agreeing that it is an expensive piece of plastic. None of them ever removed the grip - interesting...
yah, heh heh... as a kid I tokk everything apart sometimes I couldn't put things back together not a mechanic or anything... just like to find out how things work I guess.
As for the grip... as soon as I fix it, it's going on the b/s....
You would think, nikon would match the materials of the D200.... not this time. big disappointment. that's it, I'm switching to canon
I dont' know guys - I've put mine through some rough use - and it's still working fine. I've got it screwed on pretty tight and all the af/shutter buttons and aperture/ss dials still work. Maybe I just got lucky?
took me 2 hours to pry it off my D200 withouth damaging the D200... too tight is the problem, don't do that. You saw it, the gears.... they shoulda used titanium gears...
the reason these grips wobble so much, no matter how tight you put them is the tripod post mechanism is in a metal plate. this separates the entire grip from the actual tripod nut, a thin metal plate. if it werent for the battery post that goes inside the D200, the whole grip would just break right off.
Did not have the "stuck on" problem since I never take mine off. But on one of my grips the little grey clips that hold the battery in place broke. One both clips both of the ends broke off and one side the little guide that holds it in place broke. It still works without them since the door holds the batteries in place. Go figure it was the first grip that I bought and out of warranty
I just recently got the MB-D200 grip in order to increase battery life as well as add stability to the grip. I´m fairly happy with the increased battery life but the mechanically the grip is a disaster and it´s ergonomics are terrible as well. I should have paid attention before i ordered...seeing that offset tripod mount hole in the bottom plate just screams unstability. The whole package is very, very "wobbly" mounted on a tripod.
As far as vertical grips go on a general notice, both my MD-4 for the F3, MD-12 for my FE2/FM and the MD-23 for the F4 performed in flawless fashion.
I would seriously expect better from Nikon than what the MB-D200 shows!
Well the MDs were motor drives, so they had to be built better. IIRC they were built with almost all metal construction and a lot of screws at key points. The MB-23 was rock solid too, though only a battery grip. Mine took a lot of scrapes and the paint was gone, but never a mechanical problem. I noticed the grips starting to get cheap when the F100 came out. The grip was too flimsy so I disposed of it. I'm not surprised that they are only becoming worse.
Well - I like mine. At about $170.00 dollars for the extra functionality I can't complain. I use Arca Swiss plates so I don't have tripod mounting problems. I think if they had built it out of the same materials as the camera it would have cost much more.
Edited by chickpiper on Jan 28, 2007 at 12:18 PM GMT (Reason: added picture)
The only real issue I'm finding is that it seems to loosen over time (like a week or so), and I have to tighten it a little. Then there was the powering out issue I had, and concluded (after reading posts here) that it was too tight & the connection was fudging some. If I end up getting another D200 (or D200s ), I'll probably get another grip to go along with it because I really like the vertical shutter release for portrait shooting.
?
sometimes I couldn't put things back together 
At about $170.00 dollars for the extra functionality I can't complain. I use Arca Swiss plates so I don't have tripod mounting problems. I think if they had built it out of the same materials as the camera it would have cost much more.