Electronicam

Electronicam was a television recording system that shot an image on film and television at the same time through a common lens. It was developed by the DuMont Television Network in the 1950s, before electronic recording on videotape was available. Since the film directly captured the live scene, its quality was much higher than the commonly-used kinescope films, which were shot from a TV screen.

How it worked

The schematic for the Electronicam is fairly simple-- an image is shot through a lens. Behind the lens is then a beam splitter that sends one half of the image to a 35 mm or 16 mm camera mounted onto the right side of the television camera. The other beam splits off to the side onto another mirror at a 45-degree angle that is picked up onto a video camera tube.

In the studio, when two or three Electronicam cameras were used, a kinescope system recorded the live feed that went out on the air, so the Electronicam films could later be edited to match. The audio was recorded separately onto either a magnetic fullcoat or as an optical soundtrack negative.

Useage

The "classic 39" episodes of "The Honeymooners" were shot with Electronicams, which meant they could be rerun on broadcast TV, and eventually transferred to home video. Without Electronicams, almost all "The Honeymooners" episodes would no longer be available today, as most kinescope recordings were destroyed. [ [http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumont5.htm DuMont Television Network Historical Web Site] ]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.pharis-video.com/p4589.htm Chuck Pharis Electronicam web page, with many photos and diagrams.]