The Tragic Demise Of The Technirama Prism-Based Anamorphic Lens

In the 1950s–60s, Technicolor partnered with Dutch company De Oude Delft to create prism-based Delrama anamorphic lenses under the Technirama format. Unlike cylindrical anamorphic lenses, these prism-based designs produced distortion-free widescreen images on standard 35mm film. Despite their optical superiority, Technirama was pushed out of the commercial market. De Oude Delft pivoted to consumer 8mm and 16mm adapters, but these suffered from degrading silver mirrors, fragility, and a fixed 4-meter focus distance that made close-up shots impractical. By the 1970s, Delrama had faded from the market entirely. Photographer Mathieu Stern recently acquired and tested one of these rare adapters on a DSLR, showcasing the forgotten format.