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New Film Photography Eliminates Depth Problem DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., May 29. — At the 32-day meeting which opens here today, a new and exclusive application of race track photography will be introduced. It is the result of more than a year of research and it eliminates the "depth problem" in film patrol pictures. The film patrol system is considered one of the most important mechanical advances ever made in racing, as it enables stewards and other officials to detect rough riding and other infractions of the rules. Its chief, if not only, disadvantage is that shots made head on, which show a horse crossing another do not show, the distance between them. An attempt was made to solve this "dept problem" by having a side camera, usually on the roof of the grandstand, picture the stretch run. The head-on and side shots were studied separately. The new method synchronizes the two and is considered a tremendous improvement, virtually achieving the ultimate. The Delaware Park innovation is the brainchild, of Lester Bernd, a pioneer in film patrol photography, who installed the system at all tracks employing it in the East. A patent has been applied for. Its adoption here was approved by the management after exhaustive tests had been made. The new instllation has been made only in the homestretch for the present. Henry Nelson, of the Technical Service Bureau of the Bell and Howell Company, says of the Bernd system: "The method of photographing the last quarter-mile with two motion picture cameras, one-quarter of a mile apart, operating simultaneous with synchronized motors so that one camera takes a front view and the other a side view, gives the layman the actual view as seen by two individuals, but enabling one person to view the two scenes on a screen at one time. It provides a third dimensional view, something that has never been done before."
