This amazing photo is from October 1945…12 months before the introduction of the RCA TK30. The camera at the bottom has an experimental Image Orthicon tube in it and is being compared to RCA’s Orthicon camera. WWII ended September 1945 and as a treat, a rodeo was staged Madison Square Gardens by RCA for the wounded veterans from local VA hospitals, but the event doubled as a testing ground. The demonstration was viewed on monitors by reporters in a separate room. At the end of the show, the house lights went down and 48 “cowgirls” (one for each state) entered the arena with candles in their hands and formed an outline of the US. The glow of the candles could be clearly seen via the IO camera, but there was almost nothing from the other camera. Notice the single lens and the “new” periscope viewfinder hood on the IO camera…that makes this the first RCA camera with an electronic viewfinder. The Orthicon camera on top is using a dual lens optical viewfinder. Dumont had electronic viewfinders from the start…wonder why it took RCA so long to come around? The Image Orthicon had actually been developed a year or so before this, but was classified as secret and only the military had access and knowledge of the tube. It was only grudgingly that the government gave in to broadcasters who clamored for the new technology. The first RCA TK30s actually went to the US Army several months before NBC got theirs in June of 1946. Commercial distribution of the TK30 started in October 1946 and the RCA TK10 IO Studio Camera debuted in December 1946.
A True Rarity! RCA’s First Image Orthicon Prototype Camera
