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I recently took a trip to Alaska for the midnight sun, some glacier cruising and also a glacier hike. I owned the N80 back in the day and it also had a battery adapter and ever since purchasing the D80 I was unsure if I would need this or not.

This adapter is indispensable. I was on the glacier cruise, shooting away (took 10GB with me) and I was through the first card and my battery light started flashing. I waited for a lull in the action (sea otters, caving glaciers, bald eagles) and then loaded the 6AA battery tray, dropped in the e2 lithiums I had bought before hand and I was back. There were no chargers or anything to be had on this trip, so this was exactly what I needed. The extra bulk is negligible and having a grip on the bottom of the camera is essential.

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Update: I’ve been using the MB-D80 for about four months and recently bought the Nikkor 70-300 VR lens. I want to underscore what others have said about battery use: the D80 alone uses a lot of power, and the VR lens only increases the drain on the battery. The MB-D80 with two Nikon EN-EL3e batteries is really the only way to go if you want to be sure not to run out of juice while shooting. (Note: the MB-D80 does not come with a battery.) The unit completely runs down one battery before switching to the second, so you can pop the discharged battery out of the pack, place it in the charger if AC power is handy, and keep shooting on the second battery; the first battery will be charged in a couple of hours. If you manage to go through both Nikon batteries during a shoot you can pop in AA batteries with the extra holder included with the MB-D80.

As I mentioned in my review of the D80 itself, if you’re accustomed to the pro Nikon cameras of ancient (F2 through F4) and are moving to digital by purchasing the D80, the new camera may seem too small and too light. Now this mostly applies to people with larger hands/longer fingers (like me); those with smaller hands will likely find the D80 just right. This logic applies to the MB-D80 as well: people with smaller hands should reckon twice about throwing an extra $135 into their investment (maybe place it toward a lens or filters) since the battery pack does increase the overall bulk of the body significantly—say between 25-30%.

If the above is not a concern, then the MB-D80 is well worth the money. It is well-made and conforms perfectly to the shape of the camera body. In fact, while using the camera without the battery pack I often felt that something was missing and that my right hand didn’t have enough to grab onto. The MB-D80 solves this for me. Nikon replicates the shutter release and command dials on the vertical grip of the MB-D80 so that vertical shots (portrait shooters take note) are now nearly as fluid as horizontal shots. It’s sometimes simple to accidentally trip the second shutter release, but if this is a problem you can just switch it to the off position.

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this is a must have if you are a Nikon D80 owner OR thinking of becoming one!

it’s a lot simpler to take vertical photos with this vertical grip.

it eliminates your elbow from sticking out to the side and you get more stability by having your arm close to your body.

not only that, you can use it with either one or two Nikon EL-EN3a AND it even comes with a 4 AA batteries holder!

try it! you have a return period anyways!

i’m not returning mine! also, if you’re an advanced novice photographer like me, having this with the D80 make you look like a PRO!

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This is a must for Nikon 80 owners who are serious photographers. More than the extra juice you can carry by using 2 batteries, the comfort of switching between landscape and portrait justifies the investment. I got mine 3 weeks ago and I’m loving it!