Larger gauges.
There are at least two good reasons for having experimented with the possibility of using films larger than 35 mm, even since the beginning of cinema. First of all, the larger the image on the film, the less it has to be magnified to give the same size on the screen, resulting in better resolution and quality of the image. Secondly, with a larger sized frame it is possible to have a height to width ratio that permits the use of a wider screen. To obtain a larger image from a 1:1.33 gauge the screen will have to be very high and relatively narrow, whereas with a gauge of 1:1.66 or even 1:2.55 (as in CinemaScope) the image can fill the entire proscenium of a theatre.
Once again, in this field too, the history of cinema has seen the flowering of gauges that were very different from each other, almost all of them doomed to disappear. Only a few of them are listed here.
American Biograph (1895) was a 70 mm film without perforations in which the height to width ratio was similar to that of the 35 mm.
Lumière Wide (1890) was a 75 mm film with eight circular perforations
per frame per side.
Veriscope (1897) was 63 mm with five perforations per frame per side in
a 1:1.65 gauge.
In the 1930s other gauges appeared that were used for only a short time, such as Grandeur (1930) from Fox, a 70 mm film with four perforations per side and a height to width ratio of 1:2.13; or Realife from MGM which was almost identical.
Little was heard of large screen gauges or large gauges, until the 1950s when Todd-AO, Super Panavision 70, MGM Camera 65 and the present day 70 mm all appeared.
Modern day 70 mm is a print format only. The negative was originally 65 mm and today is more usually 35 mm, blown up.
