Introducing The RCA TKP 45 & TK 76 Prototypes

On July 11, 2014 - TV History, Viewseum


Ultra Rare! Introducing The RCA TKP 45 & TK 76 Prototype…

The RCA TKP 45 was the first portable color camera without a backpack and debuted in 1974, two years before the TK 76 color ENG camera. At the 6:19 mark, you’ll see the TK 76 prototype that fortunately didn’t look anything at all like the final version.

This RCA sales tape includes footage from the field testing, some of which was at The Rose Parade. This was probably the first ever EFP or Electronic Field Production camera as it was mostly built for that and not Electronic News Gathering (ENG), but would work in either application. Our friend Lou Bazin was the principal RCA engineer on this, and many other RCA camera projects including the TK44, 45, 46 and 47. Enjoy and share!

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9 Comments

  1. Troy Walters July 12, 2014

    Excellent film, it’s amazing how versatile that camera is for portable and studio use, I would call it the swiss army knife of cameras! By the way is that bearded magician in the film James Randi?

  2. Curtis R Anderson July 12, 2014

    Look at some of the later _Midnight Special_ videos on YouTube from 1975 and later, and you might see a camera operator using a TKP45 to capture the artists on stage. Seeing that camera off to the side of the stage stands out like seeing all the Shure SM58 microphones on stage. (It seemed that NBC went on its Shure buying binge around 1970 or so.)

  3. Dennis Martin July 11, 2014

    Was that the Amazing Randy in that video?

  4. Art Hackett July 11, 2014

    Here’s a TKP 45 in action at WHA-TV in Madison. That “lightweight cable” is like “lightweight cement blocks.

  5. Alec Cumming July 11, 2014

    Anyone’s remember NBC’s Saturday morning ENG-based series GO? I imagine it went into production around the time this camera came into existence, which is when making a show like that was doable. http://youtu.be/gQg8MdHLtVQ?t=1m54s

  6. Greg Dunlap July 11, 2014

    I had a TKP 45 as a title camera in my CMX edit suite back in 1990.

  7. Terry Ricketts July 11, 2014

    Anyone know what happened to my pal Frank Davenport?

  8. Robert Berthel July 11, 2014

    Looks uncomfortable to operate. I saw one (or similar) back in September ’75 covering Presidents Ford’s visit to NH.

  9. Dave Perrussel July 11, 2014

    Still saddens me that RCA went out of business. They had some great innovations, and some great misses at the same time.