Thy Rod And Thy Staff…

Now for a very ‘inside television’ moment. What’s important about this simple photo? The Zoomar demand rod, that’s what.

The Zoomar lenses were remarkably sturdy and dependable, but there was a slight Achilles heel. The zoom and focus demand rod.

In a studio environment, every thing was great because they never came out of the camera, but for remote cameras and network crews, it was a different story. The rods were made out of aluminum and bent easily and once bent, were hard to get perfectly straight again. Experienced network cameramen knew this and some carried their own rod on the road. The smart ones got to set up early and rolled the rods on the floor to see which ones were straight. Bent rods could hang and chatter. There are a few good puns I could have added here, but…

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