Can someone tell me with certainty what it takes to get a D700 to shoot 8FPS. I know you need the additional grip, but some have told me that I need 8 AA batteries, and other's said it would only work with the EN-EL4a/4 battery.
Does anyone know for sure which is true? If the answer it "both", which one is the better option?
the answer IS both.... you won't get 8FPS out of the EN-EL3E.... but both EN-EL4 and AA's will give you 8fps. I currently use the AA's but I would like to get a couple EN-EL4a's which would free up a whole bunch of AA's for flashes.... I currently have enough rechargable AA's to give me three full changes of batteries in the D700 (24AA's dedicated to my D700) I'm not sure which would give you more shots... I would rather get the EN-EL4's cause 24 is just SO many AA's to keep track of....
You need an MH-21 or MH-22 charger(there may be another model) for the EN-EL/a batteries. It's totally different from the MH-18 charger. The EN-EL4/a battery will give you better battery life, but won't give you any performance boost over AA's. FWIW. a full charge on a set of AA's will give around 1000 shots on a D300. I suspect the D700 will get a few less, but still quite good without the $250 spent on the EN-EL4/charger.
Your mileage will vary on any battery. See "Impressed with AA's" for an example... I got exactly 5,600 shots from a single charge of AA batteries on my D300, and then got about 5,300 from the next charge.
A paltry 1,000 shots, like mfletch and others are getting, means lots of chimping, lots of live view, lots of composing with VR, or lower-capacity batteries, or something else. And it's still pretty good battery life!
The bottom line: it's easier and more convenient to use -EL4a batteries. But it does cost about $250 more. Personally, I'm thrilled with the AA option, and even more thrilled that Nikon gave us the option. Long live the MB-D10 grip!
With AA's I get about 3000 when I had a D300/grip combo. I did a good amount of chimping and used live-view "rarely". I used Pearstone 2900mAh batteries from BHphotovideo.com
Yes. It seems quite ridiculous to buy and carry an additional proprietary battery and charger. I am planning to use the AA's since I already have them. I am sure shots per charge will be lower than the EL4 but I can live with that. I wish they made eneloop style batteries in capacities larger than 2000 mah. The reports of longer usage/shots are generally for 2700 mah batteries.
