Vello BG-N18 Battery Grip for Nikon D7500

This grip is as described. I bought it for my Nikon D7500. It holds one rechargeable battery. The drawer is easy to access. The hold on the grip is very well designed. It doesn't add any significant weight to the camera. I cannot swear to the durability, but it seems to be well constructed.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little on edge about purchasing the item. I for sure thought it was going to be a waist of money. I was wrong. This is an awesome battery grip and works flawlessly. Don’t think twice just purchase it. You will be happy.

I would give this grip 3 stars instead of 4, but honestly a lot of the issues with it are related to Nikon choosing to not properly allow the two to communicate through a proper electrical port. However Vello or another third party could have designed a grip that utilized a remote signal to trigger the shutter release, which would obviously be possible as the D7500 works with a small remote control called the ML-3. The fact that you need to attach a little crappy cord to the grip and then to the side of the camera, means the side port flap is forced to be open at all times! This of course causes a weather sealing compromise and possible damage if snagged. This grip does not fit the camera very well and is also very uncomfortable as the large dial you rotate to attach it sticks out way too far. When holding the camera with in your hand in vertical orientation this dial is directly where your fingers should be. I don't know why the heck they needed to make the dial so large and stick out so far, it just does not make any sense to me. I have chosen to not use the shutter release cord for reasons listed above, so this is literally a dummy grip in my case! Its only function is to add size and weight for better balance when using the D7500 with my larger 400mm f2.8 VR or 70-200mm f2.8 FL lenses. It's also quite an uncomfortable stretch to reach the directional AF selecter(dpad) when holding the camera by the grip so you might as well just hold the camera as if you don't have a grip attached. To me all this grip is, is a way to add size and weight to the D7500, which is too small and light to use alone with large lenses. At the end of the day though it is better than nothing and you can technically use the grips shutter release cable if you choose to, but you'll probably chose to do what I do and just accept that it's a dummy grip. I can't fault Vello for Nikon's stupid choices on this matter, I just wish someone figured out a way to make the grip communicate with the camera remotely for shutter release. For the low price and if you need to add weight and size like I do it's a decent buy, but is also reminds me daily how bad it sucks not to have a proper grip with all the functions! Why Nikon, why?Update: I have had to stop using this grip because of connectivity issues, where the camera will shut off and the pentaprism goes dark. Almost as if you hit the depth of field preview, which does not exist in the D7500. I thought it was an issue with my camera at first and was quite concerned as it’s a year old. However I couldn’t duplicate the issue without the grip, so it’s definitely the grip and the issue happens mostly when attached to heavier lenses, where the grip flexes a bit and it causes a loss of connection momentarily. It’s enough to shut the camera off and miss shots, so I’m done with this grip. Again this is Nikons fault in my opinion, but it’s also just a cheap poorly made grip. I’d skip this purchase and honestly just buy a D500 if you need a grip. I’m selling my D7500 and getting a D500!

So far so good. It drives the camera! I love the little storage slot for the camera battery door. I shoot action photography with a long lens and flash. A grip like this essential for stable camera grip. Prompt delivery from the seller!

One of the main reasons for the battery grip is to allow a Camera to have additional battery power by adding in more batteries. Hence the grip for the extension of the extra battery power. This grip only allows space for one battery and the extension fills the slot of the actual cameras battery storage. It’s cosmetic and doesn’t allow for more than one battery it’s useless

The camera will sometimes thing that the battery in the grip is dead. When this happens you will have to turn the camera off and take the grip off and then put it back on. This has worked for me.

It gets the job done! I use it for hand held vertical video for igtv. Shutter button works too with that flimsy little cable but still works tho 😁😁😁😁

Worked great once. Then had a low battery indicator light come on. Took the grip off and no battery issue after that.