You got the best camera stories on the KZfaq. I love the "What you don't use Canon" story. That was a winner. And yes my D4 took huge beating covering many social unrest and sports stories. Never ever let me down!

Thank you for telling your life of photographer. I imagine the scene. All professional have been experimenting nasty situations sometime. All the best.

Yay! Story Time with Vahagn

Great story about the Nikon D4 camera. It seem that the cameras that Nikon build are very strong and durable. Happy Thanksgiving Vahagn, you rock.

Love you Vahahgan! Happy thanksgiving 🍁 to you and your family!

OMG!! Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for sharing your stories.

I'm still in love with my D3/D4 combo....so freakin' reliable and has made me so thankful to own Nikon gear! Happy Thanksgiving Vahagn! Love your channel.

Happy thanksgiving to you and your family

Happy thanksgiving! What a nightmare of story thanks for sharing it.

Greetings from Ireland. Thank you for all the great videos. Keep up the great work :)

Rock on bro!! Thanks for sharing

V great thanksgiving😄🤘

Crazy story :)

I can only imagine what was going on in your mind as you were falling! Wow! Thank goodness you and the camera are ok! Rock and Roll !!!!!

Holy crap, I would have had a heart attack!!

Awesome to hear the your D4 survived, especially during a gig. My D800 wasn’t so lucky when I dropped it a few years back ☹️. I reckon the Z9 will be equally rugged. Thanks for sharing 👏🏻

V your rules are there for a reason, I bet you stick to them now no matter what. Hey Happy Thanksgiving to you too!!!!!!! You know I've enjoyed watching your channel and it is growing, it's really good and I think it's going to jump in subscribers at some point. I've got this old d7100 that I've replaced the shutter on and it's been in all kinds of weather, fog , swamp steam, cold, and down right hot! I'm shooting with it again tomorrow. One day a new camera will come along but that one has been in my hands so long it's a fixture, and I get a huge level of comfort from it too. It's not as beat as yours but it has seen better days. You have a great weekend and holidays.

Great to hear from you. Wishing you and your family all the best this holiday season. Rock and Roll

I like your content because they are so down-to-earth and highly relatable! Keep it up, sir!

And on this Thanksgiving, that kid that was kicking the camera should be thankful he didn't get the crap beat out of him. I would have jumped in at seeing such a thing, whether it was my camera or someone else's I didn't even know. Grrrr .. I get pissed just thinking about it. Glad you've had such great experiences with your D4 - wish I could claim the same. Hope you had a great holiday Vahagan.

D4 is a gem forever😄👌👌

Love hearing your stories dude, I can so relate to this one. Last year I sold my D4 to get 2 z6ii's which are amazing but I kept my D750 and I just wish I had of kept my D4 instead, I loved that camera!

Those parents or lack thereof of aye aye aye. Keep rocking!

Rock on! Happy Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving

Every Nikon camera body I have had have never had issues with water or when I have dropped them. They are top quality and just feel so good in your hand. The Z9 should be able to handle just about anything!

Great story! Have always lusted for one of those and was fortunate enough to purchase one, mint boxed with 6000 shutter counts, from Japan this spring. What a beast! More camera than I will ever need as a hobbyist and still trying to get use to it. Hopefully it will be a life long keeper!

Another retrospective video by you.

Happy Thanksgiving Vahagn! That was an absolutely crazy story, what an awful day! I had a play with Ricci’s Z9 at a workshop yesterday through Nikon School UK (with Joe McNally) absolutely awesome event! The Z9 did feel very solid and a little heavier than I expected, and that viewfinder is amazing, so incredibly bright! I tried the focusing in a fairly dim room with backlighting (something my Z6II and Z7II struggles with) and it was still soooo sticky! I had a lucky escape shooting an event a few years ago, stupidly walking backwards and saw what I thought was grass behind me, it was actually water weed on a pond 😧. Thank goodness I kept my balance but I did have to shoot the rest of the event with a very wet leg and a shoe full of silt 😩. We certainly live and learn, myself and my colleague never shoot a wedding alone either, just too much going on these days and expectations are a little different to back in the film days too.

Thanks for sharing. I dropped my D4 and 70-200mm f/4 from over a metre height. The front of the lens casing was smashed, the camera didn't even blink - it's an amazing machine.

Happy Thanksgiving 😊 😃

Great story! The D3’s and D4’s are truly the “muscle cars” of the camera world.

Your experience with this nightmare wedding should be in the Wedding from Hell Hall of fame! Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! I shot weddings in the early 90s. I have only shot five of them. Three for friends, and the last two was for other people who liked my my photography from the weddings I shot for my friends. Only five weddings because I hate shooting weddings. Great story by the way on the D4, and the 24-70. I would not have worried about the D4, but the lens!

What such a story, btw, I am still using my trusted & reliable Nikon D850....

I have a lumix g9 with a Leica 100-400 with which I photograph birds. The best places to go are inter-tidal flats at low tide. The disadvantage is the surface is treacherous. I fall over more often than I would like. I generally smash the camera onto rocks. It survives intact. It is built like a bunker. I assume all cameras are like that these days.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for all do to inform us, to share your knowledge, and keep us motivated and excited! Rock N Roll!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving! First thing I thought was “where are this kid’s parents “ while he’s kicking your camera. I’ve seen this at receptions (and ceremonies) many times where kids are just left unsupervised.

I love my D5

My Z6ii also dropped one time nothing happened to it…. Still good as new

I don't know if you've ever heard or seen the work of the famous British photographer David yarrow but he's just utterly amazing. He is a big nikon shooter and I'm not sure at the time which pro body if it was the D3 for what it was I think it was before the 5 but he had his nikon kicked by an alpha I mean it was an assembly protected Box and a beatbox and a mall disother camera by a lion carried off retrieved later and no serious damage. That says a lot about nikon bodies and being built like tanks true camera builds. My guess is the Z9 true deny comes form will be holding up in Justice salad as the other ones I pray that they stay with their build quality everything seems to be holding up true so far but unlike Sony which looks and feels like a toy, Nikon is a true tank!

That kid incident was just crazy!!! if it was me I would be like: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING😡!?!?!"

One thing for sure, these cameras are built tough! Thankfully, I didn't have to test the "toughness" of my Nikon gear since I switched to Nikon. I try to take care of my equipment as much as possible and I did fall one time at Universal in Orlando with my D800E around my neck but managed to flip on my side to protect it. However, when I had a 5D MKII from Canon, I was doing some astrophotography in a rocky mountain area far from light pollution and there was some strong wind blowing that night. I secured my camera on a sturdy Manfrotto tripod and just went quickly to grab a drink. In a millisecond, the wind blew at a crazy speed and my 5D MKII with the 70-200mm f/2.8 L is II attached to it literally took a dive into the rocks and pebbles on the ground! My heart stopped for a second because I had a timer attached and the camera was set to take multiple exposures. I was terrified that the fall might have happened during the time the mirror was flipping or the shutter was released and something mechanical might have broken. Thankfully, nothing happened aside from battle scars to document the story and I kept using the body and the lens for at least 7 years after the incident with no problems at all until I sold my Canon gear last December.

What a great story!!!!!!! I bet the Z9 is gonna just as good! Side note: if you need a second shooter, let me know I’ll help out for free. I want too learn weddings.

The Nikon single digit DSLR bodies, the same goes for canon, are built like tanks! I try to look after my gear but I know that I can rely on it even in the worst of situations. With the D850 & D810 I need to remind myself to be more careful after almost 10 years with D3x & D3s and a further few with D2X’s.... My last terrifying moment was a couple of years ago shooting on stage with Grace Jones, left the camera by a monitor speaker whilst shooting with the second body, then when I went to pick it up the front element of the old trusted 80-200 AF-ED fell off onto the stage floor, probably the vibrations had it coming loose and undoing itself... carefully picked it up, wrapped in a cleaning cloth, then carried on shooting with backup gear; once back home all I had to do was removing the dust and screw it back on, the glass wasn’t even scratched.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, your family, friends, and our extended photography family. Our goal is to bring happiness to those who see our work. In some cases photography isn’t happy. In those cases we must lean on each other to keep pushing on and realize things eventually do get better. Cheers to all and happy holidays ahead.

Ha you should see what my old D2x went through and it still lives. I haven't shot it in years but I could.

Happy Thanksgiving!🦃🍗🤘

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 If you don't celebrate it then I hope you enjoy your week! ☺

@vahagraphy: How many actuations does the shutter have on it now?

I have a d750 and want to get another body which camera body would you advice to get, D4 (used) or get one of the Z series body in 2022.

I’ve recently tried the d3 and love the story of the D3 but I’ve gotten so used to the Z system that I just couldn’t justify keeping it. If anyone is interested it’s on BH I returned it yesterday and should be back on the site Friday.

My D4 never had to survive that. Nikon makes very tough cameras and have a good support service and that's why I still use Nikon. I tried Sony A7 - with little use it died just after a year. Now its a paperweight. Parting with my trusty old cameras is too much for me too. I still have a couple of each F F2 F3 F4 F5. And now D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 cameras. A Z9 is on order - maybe it will replace my D850 bodies...🦘

My D4 has 324k and works like the 1st day... In 2024. Yeah

I share your pain mate. I once dropped my d3300 with my 17-55mm F2. 8g. My hood/petal saved the lens as the cost of this lens was £1250 vs the cost of the d3300 but the hood/petal broke. The lens survived the drop.

I'm thankful that I am smart enough to give up photography.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: They can take my D4S when they pry it from my cold, dead hands lol

What mic are you using?

hi man, can you give me some budget recommendation for low light video, right now i have gopro 8 night video is not so good, for the range $400-500 what can i get for low light video, and i want the camera have external mic port, and can record infinitely without being stop after 30 minutes and of course more superior than gopro 8 / iphone 11, thank you very much ( i don't mind if the camera is used )

Hello Bro I have a d4 and I can’t get the back focus button to work with only 8,000 clicks

I hear your story but honestly it comes with the territory sports photography newspaper work the same. Early 90's I made lead photography mid 90's averaging 4-6 weddings a month 2000 6-8 shoots a week 2 hours hear 4 hours there left let 2nd photographer finish the reception. I hope you extract something from the accident and over worked ordeal. During your initial meeting with bride and groom you had a feeling this will be a challenging contract follow that instinct gauge take notes ask questions drop it if it's overwhelming if not charge more to pay for assistant or second photographer. I trained 6 assistants 2 are 2nd photographer capable you always brew new blood so the made photographers will not arrogant and slip up. Of my 25 plus years I suffer one light stand tipping over kids knocked it over and my Bogen hydraulic tripod topping over the musical folks ran wire and yanked on it caught on it somehow, No hassleblad setup was on it Lucky me. Assistant slipped up exposed film and non-exposed Yes it happened dropping film back Yes dropping lens once I want to tight ship. I was younger and hungry shot newspaper sport fashion and weddings on the weekends it became main staple

Hello Vahagn! I am still using my Nikon D810, and I am not willing to sell it and buy a New fancy Z series, because I don't see the point of it. What do you think, I am out of date, do I look like pensioner when I am walking down the street with my work horse holding in my hand? Should I be like everybody else, should I be in trend and run behind the new stuff all the time, be a slave of the marketing monster?! What do you think brother, please tell me? Thank you in advance for your honesty...

The Nikon D4 is still the King. The Nikon D3 is also a great camera. Don’t like the Nikon D5 and the Nikon D6. Use before the Nikon D3 the Nikon F5 for 12 years day and night. The Nikon D3 about 4 years and the Nikon D4 around 10 years.

I have a chance to get a used Nikon D4s with low shutter count for under 2k, should I jump on it?

So, if you shoot five big weddings solo in exchange for a Z 9, would you? Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Vahagan pick up the beat a little think the Fro speed talk let it rip

Flagships didn’t have a flippy screen back in the day because it creates vulnerability. Z9 has a flippy screen, so isn’t as tough .

My D4 did over 950.000 shots before the shutter needed replacing, will the Z9 be as robust..No because the flippy screen the weakest link, the reason Nikon never put them on their Pro cameras from the D1 though to the D6. start kicking a Z9 around or drop it and that flippy screen will fail.

D50 ???

F@ck, how did no one stop the kid playing soccer with your camera?!

I don’t understand why you just accepted that nonsense. Why didn’t you get ahold of the parents and demand they pay for repairs?