HIS was a reputation born in the heat of battle, not with a gun but with a camera.

Denis Gibbons was 27 when he left Sydney to cover the Vietnam War.

When he returned five years later he had been wounded five times while capturing some of the most iconic battle images of Australians at war.

Gibbons, who died of cancer at Prince of Wales Hospital on Monday, was the first correspondent "embedded" with Australian and US forces.

Having done army training in the 1950s, he lived at the Australian Task Force Base at Nui Dat and covered every battalion and military unit deployed to the war during his five years as a correspondent for Fairfax and United Press International.

His great mate and former Vietnam snapper Tim Page said Gibbons was "seriously hardcore".

He said Gibbons' combat images from several ambushes were among the best action pictures of the war.

"Denis had one of the hardest wars of anyone," Page said. "His collection is quite remarkable and he was the best Aussie snapper in Vietnam, for sure."

At a time when reporters and photographers were shunned by the military, Gibbons earned their trust and accompanied Diggers into battle - and was almost killed on several occasions.

He even spent time with the legendary Australian Army Training team in Vietnam, the most decorated unit of the war, shooting some of the most raw combat images of the conflict.

His army training helped and many of the men he worked alongside in Vietnam were mates from his National Service days, giving him an extensive contact list for his tour, scattered throughout the Australian task force.

At an exhibition of his photos last year, Gibbons said that before he arrived in Vietnam the military was force-feeding the public with spin.

"Every day there was a report given out of what had supposedly gone on that day," he said. "I would read it and wonder where the hell I must've been because it was nothing like what was really going on."

Therein lies his talent: an ability to report the truth and hold the trust of the men he risked his life to cover.

Denis Gibbons is survived by six children and his two sisters, Caroline and Wendy. His funeral is on Friday.