American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1955)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

evision CINEMATOGRAPHY THE FUNCTIONS of a television camera and a film camera are combined in this new video-film camera, which picks up and transmits a television show at the same time it records the show on film. The Video-Film Camera New dual-purpose camera will simultaneously photograph a show for live television and record it on film. By A L SIMON Production Supervisor, McCadden Corp. The wedding of electronics and film in a single, dual-purpose video-film camera was inevitable. During the shooting of my first television show on film in May, 1951, I saw the advantages such a camera offered the producer of TV films as well as television stations: the ability to televise a show ‘‘live’ and at the same time record it on motion picture film for delayed broadcast. Another advantage is that the arrangement would make possible a practical electronic viewfinder, enabling the cameraman and others to see the scene exactly as it is being picked up by the camera lens. It would also make possible for the first time the use of slave monitors in the filming of shows with multiple cameras (such as “I Love Lucy”) which would permit the show director to observe the coverage of each camera from a remote position on the stage. (See cover illustration. — Ed.) Unaware of the complexities of optics or of the continuing rapid advancement of electronics, I nevertheless ventured into the designing and production of such a camera. Since that “day of decision," the ensuing four years have been filled with many anxious moments. Today, the video-film camera envisioned above is a reality. Its first public demonstration was given re¬ cently before a most critical audience, the men who are eventu¬ ally to use it — members of the American Society of Cinemato¬ graphers. The video-film camera, which is pictured on this page, is capable of transmitting a live image via television, and at the same time recording the same image on 35mm motion picture film— both images identical in field because both are picked up by one and the same lens. It works this way: an image is picked up by the camera by means of a regular photographic lens, which transmits it to the film plane in the usual manner. Between the lens and the h rn, a beam-splitter is interposed which causes a duplicate image to be picked up by the vidicon tube of the electronic side of the camera. The camera’ is actually two cameras in one: a film camera and a complete TV camera. Uniting the two types of cameras in a single unit made possible the electronic viewfinder, with outlets for a number of lemote monitors, which industry cameramen have long hoped for. The electronic finder eliminates entirely the old parallax