The History Of Live Pool Splashdown Coverage…Part 2B

30 year NBC Burbank veteran John Olson took the two color photos on the Apollo 10 recovery ship, the USS Princeton in May of 1969. On the left is one of NBC’s 35 Norelco PC 70s that were custom engineered by “Mr Tube”, Fred Himelfarb…NBC’s in house camera guru. They were bought in late ’66 for use in their sports and remote trucks. In late ’67 NBC also bought a half dozen Norelco PCP 70s, one of which is seen in the center photo being operated by Bobby Keys. On the right is an ABC RCA TK41 on the Hornet’s Apollo 11 recovery mission. At least one was mounted on the back of an aircraft tug to provide shots from various positions. FYI, RCA’s TK44A came out in ’68 and the first RCA color portable, the TKP45 came out in 1974…quite a bit of lag time. The TK76 ENG camera came out in 1976.

Source