35mm Film - A Short History

When it comes to photography and motion picture it is impossible not to hear about 35 mm. film when going technical into the conversation. It is called 35 mm. film as it is 35 mm. wide and will have perforations on both edges at each 4.23 mm along it.

With a history dating back since 1889, when it was first introduced by Thomas Edison, the 35 mm film is still used today with some variations in format based on what it is used for but basically its form stayed the same all these years. It was first introduced into photography in 1913 and is still very popular amongst several professional photographers.

If we are to talk about film we have to talk about sound as well. In the beginning the idea of synchronizing sound and video was appreciated but was quite difficult to realize. That??s when the sound started to be stored directly to film, forming the analog soundtrack that takes out of the film a small margin to the left. In the search for perfection the display ratio changed together with new methods of storing the sound.

Nowadays digital soundtracks have been implemented. The technology break through behind this was the storage of the sound between perforations in Dolby Digital, in 2 strips along the outside part of the edges in SDDS and lately on a special compact disk synchronized thanks to a time code with the film in DTS.

With technology evolving as it does at the moment new techniques and features will probably be available in the future but so far the main format of the 35 mm film has remained unchanged with just mild modifications that are better suited for the purpose it was designed for. The most common aspects of the film nowadays is considered the one that has 4 perforations, a vertical pulldown and a density of around one frame in 19 mm.