I'll second the Manfrotto 190 Aluminium as a well constructed general purpose traditional tripod. Have various camera supports for different uses some much bigger/heavier but the 190 is a good portable all rounder. Accepts various heads and not just Manfrotto. Slight con. - reflections in some subjects from its natural colour alloy legs but this rarely happens. Reasonable weight and OK to carry with the Manfrotto sling. Live in UK but took it around NZ happily.
'I've got Duracell and Energizer that work just as well ..... most of the battery companies make the second generation pre charged too'.
Go with Sanyo who took the plunge and developed the pre-charged, long storage life Eneloop batteries that so many of us now enjoy and rely upon. At 24/10/12 my 'generic' second generation batteries do not match Eneloop performance.
Never knew that some camera batteries are chipped. My batteries are not chipped; maker's original or generic. With grip attached the camera menu lets the user select which battery to use first; body battery or grip battery. As that becomes exhausted automatic changeover takes place. I had assumed that all similar devices worked like this, the camera senses the amount of discharge which triggers the changover when needed; a battery chip seems uneccessary for this. Could the chip provide precise battery power-level indication, rather like chips on certain printer ink-cartridges? Just a thought.
Another consideration albeit more specialised. I frequently copy original works of art in a studio. As the camera battery cover is usually obstructed by a hefty tripod platform, grip batteries provide back-up power and eliminate a hazardous trailing mains power lead. More importantly power can be replenished without disturbing the copying rig.
Bought an inexpensive but decent Pentax 'clone' battery grip because it accepts AA cells; a widely available alternative power source to the dedicated camera battery. Seldom used accessory but useful at times with back-up lith-ion battery or AA Sanyo Eneloops.
Prototypes of something like this '1st April hoax' appeared soon after the introduction of digital cameras. It was a US invention with patents claimed. Later press reports suggested that the patents were likely to be bought by film emulsion makers, possibly wishful thinking by its originator. Believe it was called, 'Digital Film' or similar. It wasn't entirely universal e.g. photo's showed the digi. cassette inside a 35mm Nikon SLR and press releases said the maker's offered a Canon SLR version. Seem to recall that the device was about 1.3mp, common during early days of 'digital'. I still use an Olympus C2500L 2.4mp DSLR; plenty of pixels for Ebay photos. As it's close-focusing allows the subject almost touch the lens and because it just fits onto a 1930's Ihagee Exacta slide rail/copier I've used it successfully for copying negs/slides too. The latest gear and 'mega pixels' are often unnecessary. As it's interesting and satisfying to use older photo. gear a digital adapter for 35mm SLR's would be fun. Probably little consumer demand so maybe a DIY project now there are plenty of broken digi. cameras for salvage.