God willing, This will be a once in a lifetime event... Great presence of mind to take the shots...

I just cannot believe that the D4 and 600 came out unscathed minus a small tooth mark on the battery door of the D4 and some minor scratches to the lens hoods

Damn good story.

great story and shots

Howard

I can see it now:
" For sale lightly used Nikon D4, USA body, original owner, low shutter count. Body does have a few marks from grizzly bear attack...."

Wow, what a story! Glad you came out OK!

Wow! What a blast.

Goes to show - the best camera is the one you have with you.

Nobody mentioned how cute that bear was... Hmmm...

More pics of the aftermath please!

incredible, glad you are safe, at least you got to document the encounter
I will be in Yellowstone the 2nd week of September and will keep your story in mind while I hike through the woods..
thanks for sharing and again, glad you are safe.

Amazing story! The ability to tell is one thing, but thanks for showing us.

These pictures and this story would make an incredible magazine article - get it submitted
Glad you came out unscathed!

Bob

Wow, amazing! It sucks that your gear took the abuse, but what an experience.

Glad that you made the decision to sacrifice the gear rather than take that kind of risk. Insurance or not it was the right choice, but all in all it provided a better set of photos thanks to how it played out. I'm sure there are lots of great photos of grizzly's out there but yours fit into a true life adventure.

xaradaisy wrote:
The D4 survived because it locked up and played dead.

Quoted for best post of the bunch

you are the man!

i think i might have waited more than an hour to head back to get the gear.

Scary. Glad you made it.

Good thing you had the Nikon decoy to distract the bear.

Only a serious (crazy ) photographer would stop to take pictures of the bear attacking your camera.

Just think of the respect you will get when people ask you about the scrapes.

Thanks for sharing. Scott

"The D4 survived because it locked up and played dead. "
great comment...looks like a young bear..curious. b ack in lat 1978 a friend of mine that guided trips down the tatshenshini river had a large bear actually do the same thing to his camera and lens, only the bear punctured his nikon 500 mm with canine teeth marks. it was manual focus but it still worked...great story.

Did you take the pic of the D4 afterward?

Very glad you made the right decision and got the heck away, and that the bear was distracted by the gear.

Also, PM'd