Kinopanorama

Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as Panorama (Russian: панорамный фильм, panoramnyy film) in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premier screenings in Moscow in 1958. In some countries, including Cuba, Greece, Norway and Sweden, it was usually marketed as Soviet Cinerama. In 1958, during which time Great Is My Country and The Enchanted Mirror, were exhibited at the Mayfair Theatre in New York City, it was briefly advertised as Cinepanorama. Kinopanorama is for the most part identical in operation to that of Fred Waller's American-designed Cinerama format.

Kinopanorama was developed between 1956 and 1957 by research technicians at the USSR Cinema and Photo Research Institute (also known as NIKFI). The chief designer of the prototype camera was Evsei Mikhailovich Goldovskii (1903–1971), the eminent Soviet inventor and scientist. The mechanical design of the first camera, which was designated as model SKP-1, evolved from the comprehensive research into other patents, each of which cited the invention of devices for the filming—and projection—of 'mosaic images' (moving and still), lodged with the United States Patent Office (dating from 1948 onwards) by, among others, Fred Waller and Richard C Babish of the Vitarama Corporation; Winton Hoch ASC; and, lastly, Paul Stanley Smith and George Wilber Moffitt, of the Smith-Dietrich Corporation), the co-inventors of Cinemiracle, a rival three-lens, three-film widescreen format. The Soviets accessed these patents without difficulty, as each was a matter of public record, available for sighting by prospective inventors and patent attorneys. The Soviets, on the other hand, did not publish or register their Kinopanorama camera with foreign patent offices.

There are various, albeit minor, technical differences in the film perforations between Kinopanorama, which at the time of its invention was milled to accept the Kodak Standard (KS 1866) 'positive perforation' 4740 short-pitch camera negative stock, and those of the Cinerama and Cinemiracle cameras. Cinerama and Cinemiracle employ Bell and Howell (BH 1866) 'negative perforation' 4740 short-pitch and Dubray-Howell long-pitch 'negative perforation', respectively, for their modified Mitchell cameras. It is believed that the prototype Cinerama camera number one, on display in the foyer of the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, was originally milled for Dubray-Howell negative perforations, although this has never been confirmed.

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