New POV Video in HD

During the last week of the season, we shot some pretty cool POV video with a new camera that we plan on using in 2010.

This little dude shoots in HD (720p) with a 1080p cam on the way. We'll re-shoot all these in 1080p. Pretty impressive quality, if I do say so myself, plus, it's small.

You can see two of the new videos on our YouTube page. I'm in the process of uploading Millennium Force, Maverick and Top Thrill Dragster. Oh, and reverse-reverse POV's of those too! (Wait till you watch Maverick. Oye.)

We've never had the chance to mount a camera pointing backwards since they were so difficult (and time-consuming) to mount, but now we do!

I'm interested in your comments. Thanks!

Really impressive videos. Makes missing the park hurt a lot more though. :)

How do you mount the cameras, Tony?

I'm impressed Tony. I love seeing the Reverse on TTD, and the quality is amazing! Raptors looks awesome too. I can't wait to see the new ones. These new POVs really do the rides justice.

Really cool, I love the dragster reverse cam can't wait for more.

The videos look very nice but I had a problem with the two Dragster videos. The forward POV video had a strange artifact where the track was wavy, almost like a boat going over waves. This got progressivly worse as the train speed increased, so I'm thinking it is something caused by the camera, not my computer. On the reverse POV, a similar thing happened but the track looked wavy side to side, sort of like a snake. The Raptor video was perfect.

I noticed the same thing, though it's probably just because of the shaking and sheer force.

I wish the fish-eye effect wasn't as prevalent, but these do look very nice.

The rusty track on Raptor really shows up in HD, doesn't it?

I think it would be really cool to mount a train backwards on Top Thrill Dragstar.

Tony, the videos are really cool. It should help the sting of no coasters at CP over the long Ohio winter!!

Dan, that sounds painful. :)

I think next year you should mount a camera on Millennium force when all of the fog, and lights are on terror island.

djDaemon said:
How do you mount the cameras, Tony?

Very carefully. ;) But seriously, the cam has a thread on the bottom, so maintenance was able to produce a c-clamp-type mount that wrapped on the ride's chassis. SO much easier than the big metal bars that were required before.

And Pete - the wavy nature of the video is how the cam compensates for intense movement. I prefer the wavy video rather than the alternative, which could be reallllly shaky video.

Why is there a strange sound throughout Raptor and at the brake run of TTD? Just curious.

Very cool, thanks for sharing Tony! Im really looking forward to seeing the Mav & MF reverse povs.

With all of the "commotion" on both rides, the cams hold up pretty well and the hi-def quality is superb. Great job! I can't even imagine how 1080 will look!

I think the videos are great. I especially like the extra footage at the beginning of Raptor before the lift hill, which is not present on the old POV video on the Cedar Point Web Site.

Great job Tony, et al.

Needless to say I've been drooling for a bit. Great, GREAT videos. You sure know how to please a Dragster fan Tony.:D

chris325 said:
Why is there a strange sound throughout Raptor and at the brake run of TTD? Just curious.

The mic on the camera is not broadcast-quality, so you're hearing a "tinny" interpretation of vibration and sound. Plus, the tether attached to the camera may have been moving around.

I can look forward to buying a Blu-Ray disc with all the POVs on it at some point, right? ;)