Some shots from the High Roller observation wheel

[ljm2002]

We took a ride on the High Roller on Sunday night. At 550 ft. tall, it is currently the highest observation wheel in the world. It's only been open a few weeks. It was well worth the $37 for a 30-minute ride!

A Harrah's sign on our way to the wheel:



A view of the wheel from the outdoor promenade at Linq Center:



Looking down on the Rio and Caesar's Palace as we start to get higher up:



Looking down... The curvy track is the Monorail:



The thing kept changing colors:

[Sherman A1]

1. Great pics

Thanks for posting! Haven't been to LV in a real long time, looks like it has changed a whole bunch.

[ljm2002]

9. Thanks! Yes LV changes all the time...

...even during the recession. The joke used to be, whenever you saw a construction crane, "There's the state bird"...

[Callalily]

2. Fabulous photos!

But you would never get me up on a roller coaster!

[ljm2002]

10. Thanks Callalily...

...I'm with you, you would never get me up on a roller coaster either! The High Roller is surprisingly un-scary, and I can be afraid of heights... but it's an enclosed car, and the wheel moves slowly -- it's more like being in one of those rotating restaurants than like a carnival ride.

[Hoppy]

3. Do it again, in daylight.

[ljm2002]

11. I plan to do it in daylight too...

...it's cheaper, for one thing ($27 vs. $37), and of course the views will be different in the daytime. I will also be interested to see if the height seems more scary in the daytime -- I did not experience any vertigo at all on my nighttime ride.

[Agschmid]

4. Wow! I need to get to Vegas!

[ljm2002]

12. Come on down...

...there's lots to see and lots to do, and you don't have to spend a bundle to have a good time.

[NV Whino]

5. Great photos!

Obviously the thing goes slow enough to get good focus at night.

[ljm2002]

13. Thanks NV Whino...

...yes the thing moves slowly... it never stops, in fact, and people board and get off on a platform while the wheel continues rotating (there's even a net to catch anyone who missteps, although it would take some effort IMO).

[alfredo]

6. Beautiful

[ljm2002]

14. Thanks alfredo...

...appreciate it!

[alfredo]

17. Sensors don't like featureless skies. They get confused and you get all kinds of garbage like

banding and noise.

My 4 year old camera weeps bitterly at night, and taunts me when trying to photograph a blue sky.

[ljm2002]

18. Yes I've tried focusing on a bare blue sky...

...with amusing results to say the least -- usually it's the poor lens trying and failing to focus.

As for night shooting, it's a real challenge. I tried reading the manual before I went, still had a fair number of shots with longer exposures and resulting blurriness. But I knew that would happen when I went up, just tried my best and hoped for a couple of good shots.

[alfredo]

19. I set my camera on manual override and I turn off IS. If there is no motion, the IS still tries

to compensate for motion.

[Solly Mack]

7. Great shots!

[ljm2002]

15. Thanks Solly Mack...

...glad you liked 'em!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Amazing shots! And such clarity too...wow.

[ljm2002]

16. Thanks CaliforniaPeggy...

...about the clarity, though: it's not as good as it may look in these reduced images -- there was certainly more fuzziness and graininess in various pics than I liked. I didn't use a tripod for obvious reasons, and the pics are taken through glass. I tried several different settings (AV mode, ISO from 400 - 1600, TV mode from 1/10 to 1/150, landscape mode) and got a lot of different results depending on how much light there was. Many of the panoramic shots were pretty dark -- thank goodness for RAW mode and Photoshop!