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Author
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Topic: Two Bad Ideas
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted December 12, 2017 11:50 AM
Sometimes even the most brilliant engineering ideas can destroy companies. Here are two prime examples in our own world of cine:
First up, Pathe's 1957 4.75mm, so called widescreen, system. They tried to copy double 8mm by splitting 9.5mm. The problem was that despite the advertising hype it wasn't wide screen, and operating the projector was a nightmare:
Sales were miniscule, and Pathescope were bankrupt soon after this debacle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGfv_Ub5XfY
Next up, the Polavision instant movie system, the idea of the brilliant scientist Dr. Edwin Land of Polaroid. The sytem gave you two and a half minutes of color film that was processed in the TV type projector in about 3 minutes.
The problem was that the system used an additive color process that produced an image so dense that it could not be projected on normal 8mm projectors. The little TV screen was as big as you could get, and even that needed two halogen lamps focused on the gate. But the real killer was that there was no way that anyone who had seen 8mm Kodachrome would take a second look at this sytem, the picture quality was pretty bad. Plus super 8mm already had sound when this came out and Polavision was silent.
Eumig went bankrupt almost immediately and Polaroid stock took a huge beating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exuJ8TSJGQ0
The moral of this story is that clever engineers, operating without thorough marketing research and support, can get companies into a heap of trouble! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
[ December 12, 2017, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Scott Alexander
Junior
Posts: 4
From: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2018
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posted January 30, 2018 06:19 PM
For kicks, yesterday I tried shooting two rolls of Polavision! They had expiration dates of July 1979. I acquired a working camera and a working projector for the big experiment.
We had a lot of fun running around in front of the camera. We tried one roll outside and one roll inside. BUT... we got no exposure of any kind. When we played it back, it just looked like clear leader, with little specks on it. I was disappointed, though I knew in advance that film that expired 39 years ago was probably doomed! My assumption is that the chemicals just dried up.
For any of you have who used the player, the one odd observation is that the "developing time" was much longer than the manual said it should be. The film went back and forth a few times, playing and rewinding, before the lamp decided to turn on and do playback.
Am I the last person alive who will try to shoot Polavision?
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted January 31, 2018 12:06 PM
A projector that seemed to have done well, but most collectors don't like them, are those Kodak Moviedecks! Yep, only up to 400ft and from what I have read, they were not all that kind to film, but I had a sound version of this projector and I always thought it was pretty nice that the reels were sideways/flat and it certainly didn't take up to much room, and they were also both super and standard 8mm.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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