New Batteries or Battery grip

[ken1953]

This is inspired by a discussion in the "other manufacturer" forum...hehe...

My 8400 takes the EN-EL7 battery. I can purchase these for about $30 ea. Today while I was out shooting, I ran into a low battery problem and I had just started shooting. I had used the camera last night and forgot to recharge. It was while I was trying to shoot a swan that walked up behind me and I was trying to shoot fast, but because of the low battery, I was having to wait for up to 15 seconds for my camera to cycle. I was on RAW and switched to JPG but forgot to lower my resolution which was set at 8mp...
Now my question is....should I buy 2 batteries for spares or would it behoove me to spring for the much more expensive battery grip??? I already have 4 2300ma and 4 2100ma Lithium/Ion batteries as well as several NiCads. and a slow charger and a quick charger.
Any advise will be helpful in my decision!!
Ken

[another view]

My 5000 uses the older EN-EL1 batteries, and I have four of them. The original Nikon one is the best; "Digital" brand from B&H is very close and a lot cheaper; and the other two aren't very good. Surprisingly, the mAh capacity is just the opposite of this (Nikon being the lowest). Do you have any spares? Maybe start with one because I know the newer batteries are better.

I've seen the grip for the 5000 and it's as big as the camera itself. Personally it's not my choice, but with four high-capacity NIMH AA's it will go for a long time.

[Speed]

Hey Ken,

I got two extra Nikon Li-Ion batteries for my 5700.

I numbered them, and use them in rotation. That way, they all get an equal amount of use. When one gets weak or drained, I can switch out batteries and keep on shooting.

For me, the delay is a real pain when using flash. When the battery gets weak, it seems to take forever for it to recycle. Having a spare allows me to switch to a fully charged battery and I'm back in business.

I haven't seen any battery packs for the Coolpix cameras, but I can image they would be rather bulky by comparison to the camera. I love my battery pack on my N80, but I have a hard time envisioning one on my 5700.