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Old 10-17-2021, 12:55 AM   #1
Tim Y
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Photography at the track

Before the late 30's close finishes were determined by sight by the three placing judges. With the advent of the photofinish camera, with its far better discerning of close finishes, DEAD heats dropped by a huge amount.

from https://www.donttakepictures.com/dtp...e-photo-finish

The oldest known racetrack photo finish images were made in 1890 by John Charles Hemment, who had earned a reputation for mastering the art of action photography at a time when sedentary subjects were the norm. His photographs were made when a horse broke a thin thread strung across the track at the finish line, triggering the camera’s shutter. With only one exposure, this method often failed to record the precise finish line moment and, if they succeeded, were unable to record the other race placings.

Motion picture cameras had begun be used to record the races in the 1920s, but the frame rate was too low to determine the exact moment the horses reached the finish line. But in 1937, horse racing enthusiast and Hollywood icon Bing Crosby opened the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and enlisted Paramount Pictures engineer Lorenzo Del Riccio to record the race finishes with his newly-created circular flow camera. First used on Del Mar’s opening day in 1937, Del Riccio’s camera revolutionized finish line photography for horseracing and other professional sports. The immediate popularity of his innovative design had race tracks all over the country clamoring to purchase his patented camera. According to Hollywood legend, Del Riccio was under exclusive contract with Paramount at the time of the invention and it is said that until a deal was reached, the studio pursued him from town to town.

Del Riccio’s circular flow camera had a thin, vertical slit that restricts the camera’s field of vision to a four-inch slice of what was before it. The camera is positioned above the track in grandstands and its slit is aligned with the finish line post. Before the horses reach the finish line, the camera begins recording as the strip film moves across the slit at the same rate of the horses as they cross the finish line, recording them from the nose backwards. Only subjects in motion are recorded onto the film; anything static appears as a streak.

They used 35 mm silver based film, had to quickly develop in a solution of constant temperature, then the extra silver grains NOT developed were washed off followed by a fixer that stabilized the image this was left. This had to be done as quickly as possible and only WERE negative mounts were available for the stewards to review. Most photo offices were a floor above the stewards, and through a hole in the ceiling, the film strip was put over a magnifier and shown to the stewards below with a wire perpendicularly arranged across that strip until the order of finish was determined. OFTEN, the wet mount dripped through that hole an onto the stewards head so it became known as "the splash down."

Once the placing judges determined if a print was necessary for viewing by the crowd, they would have to dry it, take it into a dark room and make multiple (usually 8 x 10) prints that would be distributed around the course. This was the standard until the digital cameras became adapted to this use.
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