A Brief History Of Portable Color Cameras
You would think RCA lead the way in this area, but they were more focused on studio color cameras in the late 60s as the TK42/43 project had gone badly and Norelco was eating their lunch. Now, this is not to say that there were not some RCA/NBC experimental color portables in use, but they were not production models…just testers.
That I know of, ABC had the first color portables and this video clip shows the camera on the sidelines of the USC-UCLA game on November 11, 1967. There were two backpack versions…one contained a small video tape recorder and no live capacity, but the one shown here is the “Scrambler” pack which is a control and microwave box. In the photo below is our friend Don ‘Peaches’ Langford with the BC 100 and was one of the first to use this camera.
Just a month earlier, in October of 1967, Norelco announced it’s first color mini camera, the PCP 70, at National Association of Educational Broadcasters convention, but most think it was just a prototype that was not ready for field use. The camera head, with zoom lens weighed in at 23 pounds. The backpack was an additional 22 pounds. The list price was $41,450.Â
To be fair to RCA, the color portable they introduced August 25, 1968 at the political conventions had been in developed the year before for use on the NASA Moon missions. Here is a link to the story on that camera.Â
August 25, 1968…NBC Debuts Color Portables In Chicago
Third on the scene with portable color was Ikegami. In 1972, the HL 33 (Handy Looky) debuted. The HL 33 also had a large back pack, but did lead the way in Electronic News Gathering and is generally considered the first ENG camera.
Although bringing up the rear, it was RCA that finally did away with the backpacks, which brought great joy to the camera crews. The RCA TKP 45 (see earlier post for introductory video) debuted in 1974 as a camera only unit which cabled directly to the truck. It was more of a production color camera than and ENG but could handle the task.
Finally in 1976, RCA rolled out what would become the top of the line and most used ENG camera ever, the TK76. In the last part of the TKP 45 video, we see the 1975 engineering model of the TK76. Here is the full story on that 1975 RCA ENG camera that never had a name, as told by our friend Lytle Hoover. Enjoy and share!
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/tk75.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kh8JurXv2c
Ignore the annoying bugs; here’s a quick clip of Ampex’s portable Ampex BC-100 camera in action, at the November 11, 1967 UCLA-USC game–which I had thought …
Of course, later that day, the cameraman died from a broken spine carrying the cam.
Portable color cameras started making their greatest appearances at the 1968 Winter Olympics at Grenoble, France and the Political Conventions that summer. Seems to me like advances in technology come every 4 years, like leap years do. Also, the old RCA sponsored publication of December 1972 is of interest of how CFTO Toronto converted a TK-44 to portable use. Fascinating!
Here in Washington DC, the first ENG cam in the market was a PCP90 used in 1974 at WTOP-TV, later a couple of HL-35s were added. I think the next station to get an ENG cam was WRC with the TK-76s.
Here is ABC’s Don ‘Peaches’ Langford with the Ampex BC 100 in late 1967.