My understanding, perhaps mistaken, is that when combining the in body battery of the D700 with the battery in the grip and having the battery order set up to use the grip first that when the battery in the grip dies, the battery in the body will take over until a new battery can be put into the grip. The couple times I've had the grip battery die in the middle of a shoot, that hasn't happened. The camera has just stopped working.
Is my belief on battery usage correct? Am I missing something?
Having been a Canon shooter for over 10 years and a Nikon shooter for less than 6 months, I'm still trying to figure out some of the Nikon quirks.
Thanks.
My D700 does switch batteries automatically. I have the battery order set to grip first, body second. When the battery in the grip gets low, the camera automatically switches to the battery in the body. I've had this happen many, many times with no problems at all.
I always "rotate" the two batteries - exchanging the body battery for the grip battery after a shoot. I don't think that procedure is written anywhere, it's just my idea of "evening out" the battery usage.
If your D700 isn't switching the batteries automatically, there may be problems with the battery that's in the camera, or with the camera power circuitry.
Try swapping the batteries (from grip to body) and see if you get the same result.....