One of the noticeable things about mirrorless photography is the sudden increase in the number of battery changes one has to perform. Everything works from a fairly small battery – shutter and recording mechanism, but also the two screens (viewfinder + rear screen) so the battery drain, even without using the rear screen, is relatively important.
In comparison with the D3s, on which I shot two concerts with only 1 bar down on the battery meter – two concerts is roughly 2 hours, and on the Z6 I would have had to change batteries after the first concert.
Nikon have now (finally) released their solution to this problem…the MB-N10 battery pack
This is unusual in that it really is a battery pack – it only stores batteries – one in each end. There are no shutter buttons, AF buttons – nothing. The increase in battery time is in fact indefinite, as discharged batteries can be hot-swapped out and replaced with charged ones without interrupting the camera – for example if you are filming a long time-lapse, or a video.
Sadly, this does not act as a vertical grip, which I think is a shame as it’s actually quite useful to have a second shutter and AF button for use when the camera is used vertically.
Nikon will no doubt come up with excuses for this, and other, oversights, but for me this pack at least will allow me to photograph circus events and concerts without having to turn the camera off half way through (and losing all my temporary setting adjustments) just to change batteries.
There are some very amusing comments over on the Nikon Rumors site, following the announcement that the pack is now available – before reading ANY comments on that site, one has to keep in mind that the ratio of photographers (who actually USE equipment) to ignorant forum squatters (who wouldn’t know a camera if it fell on them) is roughly 1:200 – so PLEASE take virtually ANY comment with a serious pinch of salt.