Cinemiracle

Cinemiracle was a widescreen cinema format competing with Cinerama developed in the 1950s.

In the early 1950s, the Smith-Dietrich Corporation patented a two camera process using a single mirror to combine two conventional 1.33:1 aspect ratio images to produce a seamless 2.66:1 aspect ratio image.

The resulting camera was bulky at 600 pounds (272 kg)—but had a number of interesting features: The film was shot and projected at 26 frames per second from six perforation 35 millimeter film and sound playback was from a seven track magnetic system with five front channels and two surround channels that could be steered to the left, right or rear wall of the theatre.

The world premiere of both Windjammer and the Cinemiracle system was at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on 8 April 1958.

The patents for Cinemiracle were bought by Cinerama and effectively brought the format to an end.