Electronicam

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Electronicam was a television recording system, based on a camera that shot film and television at the same time through a common lens. It was developed by the DuMont Television Network in the 1950's, before electronic recording on videotape was available. Since the film directly captured the live scene, its quality was much higher than the commonly-used kinescope films, which were shot from a TV screen.

In the studio, when two or three Electronicam cameras were used, a kinescope system recorded the live feed that went out on the air, so the Electronicam films could later be edited to match.

The "classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners were shot with Electronicams, which meant they could be rerun on broadcast TV, and eventually transferred to home video. Without Electronicams, almost all The Honeymooners episodes would no longer be available today, as most kinescope recordings were destroyed.^[1]