Same test... to be continued.

After couple weeks of Nikon D7000 tests: an issue with the Duo Battery charger and D7000 Slot Order

Nikon D7000 is an excellent DSLR having a number of features. It's able to produce the photos with excellent quality and the quality if very stable if you know what you are doing. In the worst case scenario, the BKT mode helps a lot and you'll never miss a good quality shot if it's enabled even if you're shooting in the extreme conditions and not having time to check the results and adjust the settings.

But there is nothing perfect in this world.

I ordered the camera with the whole premium set from bhphotovideo.com – http://www.bhphotovideo....igital_SLR_Camera.html, because I know this company for years and it was always a very reliable company that anyone can trust. I ordered the whole set with the 18-105 VRII lens (just to place it on my old Nikon D80 DSLR for backup and my son training purposes) and use my advanced 18-200 VRII on the new D7000.

Two days later when the box arrived I couldn't attach the filter to the new lens. A few seconds later I found to my surprise, that I received the d72 filter, but the new lens was just d67. Fortunately, bhphotovide.com proved one more time, that they stay for their service and exchanged the mistakenly sent filter with the right one. I didn't pay even a cent. In their email message they noticed, that they already know about this mismatch and they are fixing this mistake. Excellent service!

The next surprise I got when I made the first set of photos and decided to copy them to my computer. The slot numbers labeled on the camera SDXC door were mismatched. I guess, someone glued the paper label upside down or there is a firmware bug. Whatever. It's not critical if you know about it. Just keep in mind, that when you program your DSLR to save NEF to the card1 and JPG to the card2 it will work vise versa. It's not critical if you're using the same cards, but it can be a big trouble, if the cards speed and capacity, that you're using, are different.

The second trouble that I got after more detailed tests is related to the dual battery charger. First I liked it so much, because it has two slots to simultaneously charge two batteries and a powerful enough USB port, plus it can be connected to a car battery. So it looked like a device of your dreams. I charged two new batteries that came with it and went to my first photo session with D7000. After I went back home I found, that after several hours and a number of shots the main battery in Vello BG-N4 Grip was at approximately 75% and the internal one was not even used. Great results and capacity! SO I didn’t charge the batteries and decided to continue my tests. After two more photo sessions I decided to charge the primary battery and used Pearstone - Duo Battery Charger for Nikon EN-EL15. After the battery was charged I returned it back into the Grip and noticed, that it’s showing below 100% regardless of the fact, that it was 100% charged, according to the Pearstone Duo Charger. I tried again, but the camera was sure, that the battery still remains at 118 shots and 92%. The first thought was – the camera doesn’t read the battery info every time when we replace the battery. But then I played with different battery combinations and realized, that the camera is ok and it’s really a charged bug. It not only doesn’t reset the battery status, but doesn’t completely charge it using incorrect evaluation of the battery status and capacity. Then I switched back to the Nikon Battery Charger, that also came with this set – Nikon Battery Charger MH-25 and it worked! The battery shows 0 shots and 100%. I guess I will need to contact Pearstone or at least the online Nikon community to as about similar experience. I’m sure I’m not alone with that.

This is not the end of the story. I tried to charge one more battery and it was “100% charged” in the Duo Charger, but after I placed it in the camera, it suddenly showed as 95% and it started quickly draining this value to 0%. After reinserting the battery into the Duo Charger it evaluated it as 0%, then “charged” back to 100% in just a minute or so. Same result. The battery is shown in the camera as 0 times used, and its capacity jumps down from 90+% to 0% in just a few minutes even if the camera is off. I’m currently charging this battery in the “right” charged to compare the results. But I guess, that the Duo Battery Charger has serious issues and cannot be used, because you can face the situation, when the completely “changed” battery will fail if you try to turn the camera on.

I will post an update after the battery is charged and tested.