The Rise and Fall of Technirama: A Forgotten Cinema Lens
In the golden age of widescreen cinema, a quiet battle raged between anamorphic formats. Whereas many remember the successes of CinemaScope and VistaVision, the Technirama format, utilizing prism-based Delrama lenses, offered a unique and arguably superior approach to capturing distortion-free widescreen images. Despite its technical advantages, Technirama ultimately faded into obscurity, becoming a forgotten footnote in film history.
The Anamorphic Competition of the 1950s and 60s
The 1950s and 60s witnessed a surge in demand for widescreen movies. Filmmakers sought ways to record wider aspect ratios onto standard 35mm film. Anamorphic lenses achieved this by ‘squeezing’ the image during recording and then ‘unsqueezing’ it during playback [1]. Different methods emerged, with prism-based systems like Technirama offering a distinct advantage.
Technicolor and De Oude Delft: The Birth of Delrama
Technirama was a collaboration between Technicolor and Dutch company De Oude Delft (‘Old Delft’). Together, they developed the Delrama lenses, which employed a prism system to compress the image. Unlike the cylindrical lenses used by competitors, the prism-based approach minimized distortion, resulting in a clearer, more natural-looking widescreen image [1]. These lenses were designed to fit onto existing cameras and projectors.
From Hollywood to the Consumer Market
Despite its superior image quality, Technirama struggled to gain widespread adoption in the commercial film market. This led De Oude Delft to explore the consumer market, offering 8mm and 16mm adapters for Delrama lenses. Photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern recently experimented with these adapters on a DSLR camera, bringing renewed attention to the forgotten technology [1], [4].
The Downfall of Delrama: Fragility and Practical Issues
Several factors contributed to the Delrama’s decline. The silver mirrors within the prism system were prone to degradation over time, impacting image quality. The lenses were too relatively fragile, making them susceptible to damage. The adapters featured a fixed four-meter focus, which was ideal for projectors but impractical for close-up shots [1]. These issues ultimately soured consumers on the technology, leading to its disappearance from the market by the 1970s.
A Legacy Rediscovered
Today, Delrama lenses are rare artifacts, remnants of a once-promising cinematic format. As Mathieu Stern’s work demonstrates, there’s a renewed interest in these “weird lenses” and the experimental photography they enable [2], [3]. While Technirama may not have conquered Hollywood, its innovative prism-based design remains a fascinating chapter in the history of widescreen cinema.