Todd-AO

Todd-AO is an extremely high definition widescreen film format developed in the mid 1950s. It was co-developed by Mike Todd, a Broadway producer, with American Optical Company in Rochester, New York. It was memorably characterized by its creator as "Cinerama outa one hole." Unlike Cinerama, the process required a single camera and one set of lenses. Four kinds of lenses (35 mm to 56 mm, 63 mm, 65 mm, or 70 mm) covered a 128, 64, 48 or 37 degree field of view. Films were shot on 65 mm negative and the images printed onto 70 mm print stock (5mm larger to accommodate sound track) for projection. The aspect ratio of this format was 2.20:1. While the 70 mm film width had been used before, most notably in the Fox Grandeur process in 1929-1930, earlier processes are not compatible with Todd-AO due to differences in frame dimensions, perforations and type of soundtrack. Todd-AO actually combined the idea of 65 mm photography with frames 5 sprocket hole tall (also a process with a... full article at wikipedia