On-ride camera

An example of a picture taken by Disneyland's Splash Mountain camera

An on-ride camera is a camera mounted alongside the track of a roller coaster, log flume or other thrill ride that automatically photographs all of the riders on each passing vehicle. They are often mounted at the most intense or fastest part of the ride, resulting in humorously distorted expressions due to fear or wind resistance. The pictures are then available for viewing and purchase as a souvenir.

Upon exiting the ride, park guests pass a booth or shop where their vehicle's pictures are on display screens. Depending on the size of the vehicle used by the attraction, the entire car or groups of one, two, or four may comprise one photograph. The display images are numbered, and customers wishing to purchase a photo take the appropriate number to a cashier. This photo shop may be located in the same building as the displays or in a separate shop nearby. Many parks offer minimal editing tools (such as red-eye effect removal) before purchase. The photo is usually ready within minutes of purchase. Single prints in varying sizes are available, provided in cardboard folio bearing the name of the park or ride. Often specialty products, such as posters, keychains or t-shirts, are available also.

An unusual camera configuration can be found on the hydraulically launched roller coasters Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point and Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure. Both have two cameras, one during the high-speed launch segment and another at the final brake run, providing riders with a before and after picture of themselves on those harrowing rides. Another unusual configuration is Hydra the Revenge at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom. The ride features two cameras, one takes your picture before a loop and the other takes a picture while the rider is upside-down. Hydra the Revenge is also the only roller coaster to take a picture while the rider is upside down.

Video

Hydra the Revenge at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania

A relatively new trend in the industry is on-ride video cameras. On some rides, on-ride videos are recorded by cameras mounted alongside the track, similar to on-ride photo cameras. This provides a third person montage-style of cuts which show the train entering, passing through and then leaving the frame. One such ride using this system is SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida.

Using the alternate system, videos are recorded by cameras mounted inside the ride vehicles, usually on the back of the seat in front of the subject. This provides a first-person stream of consciousness-style film, showing the riders' emotions close up from start to finish. Some coasters that use this system are Thunderhawk at Michigan's Adventure and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida. Volcano, The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion, FireWhip at Beto Carrero World and Saw: The Ride and The Swarm at Thorpe Park utilize this style, with the camera mounted to the seat backs.

Thrill Ride Photos

From someone that has been in the ride photo business for over 20 years, I believe "Thrill Ride Photos" would be a better understood name for this article.

Ride Photos started showing up in the early 90's with systems using black and white video cameras and Sony Video printers. The operator would print every photo and place them on a board for the guests to view and purchase. The next technical advancement involved a Sony laser video recorder LVR-5000 controlled by a computer with a high end Sony color video camera DXC9000. Photos were printed with Sony color video printers. The photos were displayed on a Video monitor and only printed when sold. Most of this early equipment was re-purposed from the medical imaging industry. From the Laser recorder we went to high end video frame grabber cards from manufactures like Coreco still using the DXC9000 video camera.

Requests for higher resolution photos required re-purposing cameras from the Machine Vision industry. These were the only available cameras that could be triggered and controlled over a distance. In most cases the camera is 100 feet or more away from the controlling computer requiring a camera interface capable of transferring images over a distance. The early Machine Vision camera interface was termed Camera Link and required conversion to a Fiber Optic link for distances over about 50 feet. Discounting the expense, the interface and fiber proved to be less than reliable and replaced with GigE as soon as cameras with the GigE interface became available. GigE has the same distance limits as a Cat-5 network drop about 100 meters or 330 ft.

Today, multi megapixel Cameras with the GigE interface produce photos whose quality is directly proportional to the amount spent on the camera. Machine Vision GigE cameras start at about $1,000.00 and can cost over $10,000.00. Some will say "Why not just use a $500.00 DSLR?" I truly wished we could, USB and Firewire has distance limitations that could be overcame with fiber but now we are back to the reliability issues we were happy to get away from. 2nd issue is DSLR's do not take the photo exactly when they are told to and the delay, even if it's in the microseconds will create framing issues with a moving subject.