Last week I took a four mile hike in the Kalapana lava flow region located at the end of highway 130 at the south eastern part of the Big Island in Hawaii. My personal guide Doug Juarez, who also runs the nearby Coconut Cottage B&B with his wife Jaime (awesome breakfasts), made the walk easier by picking the fastest routes between meter-high crusted lava. It was a challenging four mile hike, each way, navigating through hardened layers of lava, mostly formed in 1990. We started before sunrise and the stark land, devoid of life, seemed endless. Our direction beacon was the far away massive steam plume of lava, still pouring into the ocean.
We were surprised to find new lava flows and hills being formed along our path’s end…you know you are near live lava when the temperature around you becomes uncomfortable. At this point you have to keep moving to keep your shoes from melting! The trick, which my guide Doug explained, is not to walk around new lava flows the wrong way. You could easily be trapped by end of day between changing new and old lava flows with no exit but sheer ocean side cliffs.
The Samsung NX300 walked the walk, shooting fast, more than 8 FPS in tight spots with little time to spare and with interchangeable lenses I was able to bring in unreachable lava flows at 20 megapixel quality, not to mention HD 1080p 60 video.
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Is a quality $899 pro-like camera like the NX300 worth the price? At 12 times a larger sensor than the best smartphone cameras and the Smart shooting modes, it’s frankly priceless.
Especially if you are unlikely to be at the same far way place again.
For more information on the Samsung NX300, please refer to last week’s blog.
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