In the mid-1950s CinemaScope was the world's most successful brand for anamorphic wide-screen films on 35mm film . To use CinemaScope, however, high license fees had to be paid to 20th Century Fox . Munich-based camera manufacturer Arnold & Richter wanted to deal with the development of his own system and commissioned the Norwegian Jan Jacobsen. This was possible because the anamorphic method could not be protected, in contrast to the CinemaScope brand name.
Jan Jacobsen designed a new anamorphic lens system that had the same anamorphic factor as CinemaScope, which was marketed by 20th Century Fox. The image was taken up in a 2: 1 ratio when shot in the recording, in order to then be able to show it on the full 2.35: 1 film width by means of an anamorphosis. The production of the lenses was provided by the Ultra Society for Optics in Munich, from which the designation Ultrascope was also derived.
The cheaper Ultrascope was first used in Italian productions and in Brazil . It had its most successful time in some cinemas of the federal film of the 1960s. Among the most successful productions were the inexpensive Edgar Wallace films and the elaborate Karl May films . Ultrascope was also used in some Scandinavian productions. In the USA it was used only occasionally.

ULTRA SCOPE series lenses

ULTRA SCOPE