The 1943 GE Iconoscope Camera…Front View
On January 14, 2014
- Archives, TV History
From the front, this camera and the RCA Iconoscope are quite different, yet have one thing in common. On the left is a close up of the dual lenses with the top lens feeding the optical viewfinder and the bottom lens feeding the Iconoscope tube…that is what they have in common. The big difference is that the RCA cameras could change lens sets and the GE cameras can not as they were made with what look like 90mm pairs that are permanently installed. The GE lenses are recessed and internal where the RCA lenses were front mounted and had quick change clasps for different lens sets.
The focus control is on the right side in the operators hand. It looks like a dial-string arrangement first going up from the left in the interior view, across to a reverse path pulley. There is nothing that connects back to the upper lens from the right side. The cables just vanish until their return. I think they run behind the gearing we see across a focus ring behind the gearing we see. I am not sure of the actual connection to focus. I think the parallel string arrangement to the upper lens is a different function. It looks to be connected to an arrangement that vanishes back in to the camera body. I am guessing an iris control that transfers from the upper lens where there probably is no iris (as the ground glass viewfinder would not need an iris control) to the intermediate gear and then to the real iris below. The swaled macachined piece may be an iris indicator. Just guessing. Jump in if you own one.
The wheel between the lenses is obviously for focusing. What is the thin wire or string for?