In article , says...
In article ,
Kevin Willoughby wrote:
It really is a sin and a shame that IMAX didn't exist quite early enough
to film a Saturn V launch...

Ayuh...
Except that IMAX was founded in 1967. [...]

Except that any IMAX Saturn V footage taken then would have been like the
shuttle footage in "Hail Columbia": not bad, but not that impressive
either.

I mostly agree.

Stipulated: IMAX technology has evolved a lot between the Apollo era and
the 3-D IMAX used to film the launch of the Soyuz in Space Station.

Stipulated: IMAX and NASA now have a much better understanding of the
mutual benefits of giving IMAX special access to dramatic events.

On the other hand, it is an open secret that the IMAX cameras have a
Hasselblad lens mount, so even from the traditional 3-mile limit for any
big launch, it was possible to film a Saturn V launch in IMAX with
impressive results. Although not as extraordinary as the Soyuz launch,
the result would have been impressive enough for us to regret the lost
opportunity.


I'm somewhat surprised by your comment:
I'm also not sure that IMAX had a self-contained remote camera early
enough. My impression is that the early cameras took a lot of babying
and really needed human operators on hand.
It is certainly true that the prototype IMAX cameras had various
development issues. This isn't surprising given that it has to move 3
times as much film per second as any other movie camera ever made, an
order of magnitude more film than the traditional 35mm film camera. But
I haven't heard stories about the early production cameras being
finicky. (There were film-hungry, and needed frequent reloading -- there
is a reason that you never see long uninterrupted scenes in IMAX. But
for something as predictable as a rocket launch, this isn't an issue.)

Part of the reason for not having self-contiained remote cameras was
lack of need. Given a chance to film a S-V from up close, I'm convinced
the guys who developed IMAX could have developed some kind of remote
control.
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

The loss of the American system of checks and balances
is more of a security danger than any terrorist risk.
-- Bruce Schneier