One Of My Favorite Cameras…Marconi Mark IV

On July 6, 2013 - TV History

One Of My Favorite Cameras

This is the Marconi Mark IV. It’s standard tube was the 4.5″ Image Orthicon and this could have been the first camera to make use of the 4.5″ IO as the 1958 RCA TK14 used the 3″ and it was not till 1960 that the TK12 aka TK60 debuted with a 4.5″ IO. The camera debuted in 1958 and by 1960 had began to show up in the US. CBS used them at Television City and in Studio 50 (Ed Sullivan Theater) in New York. I think CBS also had some on network mobile units. WAGA and the PBS station in Atlanta had them and so did a big mobile production company based in Washington DC.

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5 Comments

  1. Eric Posner July 15, 2013

    We had 3 of these in our college studio in 1972. Two still had turret lenses and the other had a zoom. Damn good camera that gave great pictures if the video op was good.

  2. Adrian M Woods July 7, 2013

    BTQ7 in Brisbane Australia used them … both the tube and solid state versions until 1975 … I have one in my storage lock up … beautiful cameras to operate – even better to look at …

  3. Bobby Reyes July 6, 2013

    …ABC Sports used them ..KENS-TV had a couple of them but I still haven’t found any archive photos to prove it !

  4. Bill Jenkin July 6, 2013

    The BBC used them as well in London TV Centre (RIP). They were popular on dramas/sit-coms because the lens swing (that is selecting a different lens on the turret) could be achieved faster than those on the EMI 203 which were used in some of the TV Centre studios. Especially if swinging from the wide lens to the narrow because you didn’t have to go past the blanking plate used for removing the tube which you did on the EMI203 see http://www.eyesofageneration.com/media/images/bobby/Collections_Images/Dicky%20H/EMI%20203.JPG
    If you want to see the tail end of a lens swing in vision on an EMI203 you can see it on this Jimi Hendrix clip very near the top.http://youtu.be/Om3JfoMkYbo

  5. Brett R. Henry July 6, 2013

    I remember seeing Marconi cameras during my visits during the 1970’s to KNXT (now KCBS), the CBS O&O in Los Angeles. Their station facility at the time was “Columbia Square” located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, in Hollywood.