Intermediate Film Technique
 

I know that this is an esoteric subject even for VK, but does anybody have any information about this process such as how widely was it used, under what specific circumstances, and how did they get around its inherent limitations like having to change the film mag from time to time? I know that Baird Television used it, and it was widely used in German television of the mid-1930's, one of the reasons, by the way, that German television is unusually well-documented compared with other countries'. Was it used in the United States? And when did people stop using it?

Baird didn't get round the film change problem. One of the many reasons contributing to them losing the UK competition.

Paul Marshall has pointed out that IF has been used more often than you might imagine. Including on some space missions where the far side of the moon was filmed, the film processed on board and the results telecined and sent back to earth when communication was possible again. The idea of launching a film processing lab to the moon sounds totally crazy but apparently it was then more feasible than sending a VTR.

No doubt I'm displaying crass ignorance here, and not for the first time, either, but who is Paul Marshall?