Behind the Scenes of a Wildlife Shoot With the New Nikon Z 9 in Svalbard

The new Nikon mirrorless body is put through its paces halfway between Norway and the North Pole. How can it handle these grueling and photographically testing conditions?

Norway is one of my favorite countries on earth, though its weather is not for the faint of heart. With dark, ice-cold winters lasting months on end, it can be tricky for landscape photographers to capture much on the face of it, but Norway has so much to offer. Svalbard is a group of islands north of Norway. There is a lot of interesting details about this seemingly barren tundra: for example, you do not need a visa to get in — anyone can move there if they wish — and it's home to more polar bears than people. As a result of the latter, whenever your party goes out of the town's perimeter, somebody must have a rifle; it's a dangerous place.

Nevertheless, it's near the top of my list of places I desperately want to visit and so I was pleased to see that it's where Morten Hilmer was sent by Nikon to test their new flagship mirrorless body, the Z 9. This beautiful behind-the-scenes of that assignment is a relaxing and enjoyable watch, and I was pleased to see Hilmer not being precious with the Z 9 as he gets down in the snow and the mud with it. This isn't a review of the Z 9, but rather an excellent demonstration of what it can do in the right hands in even the most difficult of conditions.