Follow Up…The CBS Mini Camera Strikes Again

On July 23, 2014 - TV History

Follow Up…The CBS Mini Camera Strikes Again

Here’s Walter Cronkite in a great 1957 publicity photo related to the upcoming inauguration of President Eisenhower. CBS would be deploying several of it’s new Intercontinental Electronics mini cameras at the event. As we saw yesterday, CBS first used these cameras for floor interviews at the 1956 political conventions.

After some digging, I’ve come to the conclusion that this camera was built in the US by Intercontinental using a 1954 design from France’s CSF Electronics, which was created in the late 1890s as the French subsidiary of General Electric. What we know today as the Thomson brand of electronics sprang from CSF. Enjoy and share!

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9 Comments

  1. James Shea July 26, 2014

    The backpack reminds me of the hot, humid day I had to carry around the electronics unit of an Ikegami HL-35 during an outdoor shoot. Making matters worse, one of the handles was broken off, meaning I had to hold the heavy package in my arms while also carrying an audio mixer and wireless microphone receivers. Good times.

  2. Michele Miller July 24, 2014

    This is unbelievable. That antenna… How much did this thing weight. Very interesting information. Great post Jon and enjoyable comments ! A reminder to me that we take for granted what we (even non professionals) have access to now and where it all originated from… 🙂

  3. Joseph Osowski July 24, 2014

    Cool!

  4. Dennis Gaffney July 23, 2014

    Let’s raise a toast to the cameraman. Half artist, half mule Nothing has changed

  5. Les Fitzpatrick July 23, 2014

    Al Franken

  6. Bill Morris July 23, 2014

    I’d feel like a pack mule with that thing on my back.

  7. Terry Drymon July 23, 2014

    and now we can shoot w cell phone

  8. David Brazeal July 23, 2014

    The best part of this rig was that it doubled as a jetpack in case the camera operator needed to vacate an area quickly.

  9. Bryan Turner July 23, 2014

    I worked at a TV station that bought a Thompson CSF camera for the news department. It was a horrible piece of junk. The only people who hated it more than the news photographers were the engineers; the engineers spent more time with the camera than the photographers.

    http://www.earlytelevision.org/thomson-csf_microcam.html