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THE ZEISS IKON

A DIN STANDARD 16mm SOUND PROJECTOR

(Cover illustration)

Mike Trickett

DIN Standard?
1
Somewhat akin to the Videotape Format War between the Beta and the VHS camps in the
1970s. A similar and now little know conflict occurred with the introduction of 16mm sound on film
in the early 1930s.

With the introduction of Sound on Film (SOF) in the professional cinema industry, the 35mm
frame size was reduced and the sound track was added to the left of the image (as seen on the
screen), that being the edge of the film closest to the operator when threaded up on a standard
projector.
In the case of 16mm, one row of
perforations was replaced with the
sound track. Ah, but which row of perfs?
The SMPE (Society of Motion Picture
Engineers – the ‘television’ addition did
not apply at that time) proposed a
16mm optical SOF (using the RCA
system) in 1932, this system was
adopted by the American
manufacturers. However, in Europe,
manufacturers (predominantly the
Germans) adopted the DIN standard
(Deutsches Institut für Normung e. V.).
Sound head – note the sprocket teeth position

The Americans system
placed the sound track
closest to the body of the
projector (right of the
screen image), whilst the
Germans decided on the
opposite arrangement – so
there it was – two systems.
The two systems
continued for a period,
eventually the Germans
adopted the American
system and the 16mm
SOF format that we are
familiar with today became
universal.