In article .com,
wrote:

[ ... ]

All review sites reflect the site owners personal prefernces somewhat.
I.e., ever since I bought my first film SLR, and was advised to get the
vertical grip, I find it so useful in portrait mode that I simply
cannot imagine buying an SLR that doesn't support this option
(reviewers always mention the same issue on the D70, and it is a
constant complaint on D70 forums, to the point that someone is coming
out with an after-market grip). But of course I recognize that some
people don't want the weight and expense of a vertical grip, and the
lack of one is a non-issue.

I shoot handheld most of the time, and when I want a vertical
format, it is easy to raise my right elbow as I rotate the camera to
take a photo in the portrait orientation. (Or sometimes I even tuck it
in as I rotate the camera the other way.) Since the next shot is as
likely as not to return to landscape orientation, I would find shifting
my hand between grips more of a pain than simply rotating the camera
while maintaining my grip.

If I took a lot of photos on a tripod in portrait orientation, I
might consider the vertical grip to be an issue. And if I had one of
those brackets which switch easily between portrait and landscape mode,
I would probably want to remote the release button to the pan handle of
the tripod or something similar. (And even remote several of the extra
controls, including both thumbwheels.)

But for now, it is just a matter of noise in the discussions to me.

Enjoy,
DoN.

P.S. Speaking of noise -- I don't find the noise at ISO 1600 to be
that bad. But my standard of comparison is the Nikon/Kodak
NC2000e/c (Nikon N90s converted to digital by Kodak) which is
*quite* noisy in ISO 1600 mode.
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