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Electronicam was a television recording system that shot an image on film and television at the same time through a common lens. It was developed by James L. Caddigan for the DuMont Television Network in the 1950s, before electronic recording on videotape was available. Since the film directly captured live scenes, its quality was much higher than the commonly used kinescope films, which were shot from a TV screen. This improved film production by reducing the shooting time.
In the studio, when two or three Electronicam cameras were used, a kinescope system recorded the live feed (as broadcast), so the Electronicam films could later be edited to match. The audio was recorded separately, onto either a Sound follower (1952, and all later) or as an optical soundtrack negative (pre-1952).
The "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners aired during the 1955–56 television season on CBS were shot with Electronicams, which meant they could be rerun on broadcast TV and eventually transferred to home video. Without Electronicams, the half-hour The Honeymooners episodes in the 1955-56 season may have been broadcast live and only exist as poor-quality kinescopes.
Also, around 1956 United Kingdom producer J. Arthur Rank brought three Electronicams to the United Kingdom to experiment but eventually was disappointed with the picture quality.
The introduction of Ampex's videotape recorder in mid-1956 began to eliminate the need for Electronicam and similar systems, allowing electronic recording from live video cameras.
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