No I did not have to pay taxes. Shipping is a touch long but when I received them they looked and felt like new. Even the Nikon boxes appeared new. Also I bought a Nikon 80~200mmF:2.8 for only $208.00. Again it looks like new and is so sharp you could get a eye cut looking at the images it produces.

Here is my baby buggy that I carry a 600mmF:4 G VR and a 200-500mm F:5.6, tripod, small cooler and shade instrument. Only thirty bucks for the buggy. Best money spent.

I fully understand why folks buy 3rd party grips. Just look at the cost of Nikon's grips for the D500, D810 and D800. All are at crazy high prices. So a low cost grip does make sense. If someone gets a good price on a used camera does it make sense to fork over hundred's of dollars for a black plastic box. Instead do research like I did and my 2 Nikon grips from Japan off of Ebay for less than $50 each.

Over the years I was able to some interesting shots.

But its hard to buy a new Nikon grip when the cost is nearly $400 and all you get is a plastic box. I bought 2 Nikon grips off of ebay and from Japan and I got very good pricing.

I use a D810, so I bought a Vellow MB-D12 battery Grip. It used both batteries at the same time and never fit as tight as I thought it should. After a little research I found a Nikon MB-D12 used at a very good price on Ebay. I bought the unit and it fits correctly and used one battery in the order I tell it. The vello sits on a shelf, not even a door stop.

It all depends on HOW FAR away the island is. The P-900 and the P1000 have very tiny sensors and will NOT give any good results over that great distance. The only way is to rent, borrow a floating device and get closer

In the 70's I worked at a bank that was built 1898, so we had window washers. I'm sitting at my desk, the window washer walks in hooks up 2 "pins" that were built into the wall in 1898, and walks out onto the window ledge, 14 stories up. I watched and thought not me. Since then I've stood in front of really big grizzly bears and photographed them and thought nothing of it. But walk out on a ledge 14 stories up-NO WAY.

The cutting down of a 140 year old multi trunked tree.

Get a boat to take you closer.

I shot the last wedding in 1989 and they would not pay me the last payment. I could not sue them because they out of the area so I said that's it. I will never shoot a wedding again. Here is a couple of shots from the last one.
Instead I shoot wildlife. I gotten bears, eagles, osprey, warblers, shore birds and landscapes. I'm having fun now.

After a major computer hard drive failure I am back up working with Win 10. I reloaded Proshow Producer and it works perfectly. I've made several shows using my win10/ proshow producer with NO problems at all. What is the OP's computer software?

I had this happen to my D800. It was the sensor going away. After spending $760 it is back to normal use.

Here is a shot from a day ago from the car seat with a D600 and 200~500 handheld.

The Nikon 200~500mmF:5.6 G VR lens IS NOT weather sealed at all. Carrying a garbage bag or shopping plastic is very important.