In the case of the CRT-based scanner, as an electron beam is drawn across the face of the CRT it creates a scan that has the correct number of lines and aspect ratio for the format of the signal. The image of this scan is focused with a lens onto the film frame. Its light passes through the image being scanned and is converted to a proportional electrical signal by
photomultiplier tube(s), one for each color (red, green, blue), that detects the variations in intensity of the beam spot as it scans across the film, and are converted to proportional electrical signals, one for each of the color channels.
Telecines that use a monochrome CRT as the light source can be referred to as flying-spot scanners. The advantage of the FSS technique is that as
colour analysis is done after scanning; simple
dichroics may be used to split the light to each photomultiplier —and there are no registration errors, as would have been introduced by early electronic cameras. ==Early use==