Watch the pros at work: go behind the scenes of Corey Rich’s Nikon D4S short film

A Nikon Ambassador, using a Nikon D4s, to film a group of Nikon ambassadors, using a Nikon D4s, to shoot various sporting events and wildlife locations. Follow?

As we wrote about back in February, Nikon commissioned photographer and filmmaker Corey Rich, one of their captial-A Ambassadors (a sponsored pro for the brand) to head out on a three-week shoot, meeting up with other professional photographers along the way to watch them work their magic. Rich and his small crew spent time with sports photographers Dave Black (another Nikon Ambassador) and Robert Beck, as well as landscape and wildlife photographer George Karbus. The hook: Everybody was using the D4s, still unreleased at the time, for all their stills and video.

Yesterday, Rich posted the finished version of the 7-minute documentary, titled "DEDICATED," plus a 14-minute behind-the-scenes clip, as is de rigeur these days. Though it’s basically an extended Nikon advertisement, it’s really, really cool to watch these pros in the field.

The doc covers a pretty broad spread of the settings where a camera like the D4s would be used—sports ranging from skiing and speed skating to motorcycle racing and rugby, plus a swim in the sea with some dolphins (Karbus says that he befriended one of them about a decade ago, and they go on regular swims together). There are plenty of inspiring quotes about why they do what they do and creation tales about how they each got into photography.

And of course, there’s the gear. Trained eyes will pick up on the techniques and bits of equipment that each of the pros use. In the behind-the-scenes clip, we get a peek at Rich’s arsenal of lenses, stabilization rigs, and yes, a drone (well, technically an octocopter -- no Phantom quadcopters here, though—the D4s is way too heavy for something like that).

Predictably, all of the photographers are effusive about the capabilities of the D4s—incredible autofocus, high-quality JPEGs, awesome low-light and high-ISO capabilities, intelligent automated ISO adjustments during filming, and so on. The footage, all shot with the D4s, does look excellent.

After you’ve watched the clips and picked up your daily dose of inspiration, head over to Corey Rich’s site for more on the shoot.

(Via ISO 1200)