Ultra Rare! RCA TK40 Prototype Color Camera…November 1952

Since posting this a year or so ago, new details on the first use of this camera have surfaced. As you remember, a few months back, I published the first and only timeline history of the NBC New York Studios. While doing that research, a tiny blurb in Broadcasting Magazine’s November 17, 1952 issue unlocked the mystery of just when the RCA TK40s were first used. It was November 8, 1952 and the occasion was a special broadcast of ‘Your Show Of Shows’ from The Colonial Theater.

‘Your Show Of Shows’ was usually done at The International Theater on Columbus Circle, but on that Saturday night, it came from The Colonial. The show was not broadcast in color as the FCC had not approved the Dot Sequential process yet, nor had they approved a special test permit, but it was a good test of the new cameras to show how sharp their monochrome output was to the many affiliates interested in how color broadcasts would look on black and white receivers. RCA and NBC engineers saw it in color on a closed circuit feed to 30 Rock and Princeton NJ.

The photo shows one of the prototypes and the engineers who were mostly responsible for it’s development and those names are in the caption. It’s interesting to note that the camera is painted RCA’s famous umber gray and on the side rear, we see a focus knob and not the now familiar panhandle focus.

Most of the “famous” color broadcasts from The Colonial came in late 1953 and early ’54. The cameras needed a year or so of field testing before they were ready for that and monitors and control equipment was still being tested and developed in NBC Studio 3H and in Princeton.

The TK40s did not go into production till March of ’54 and by then, several changes were made based on experience gained at The Colonial. The first change was the camera’s color from umber to silver that better reflected heat. That lesson was learned at a summer remote.

The second change was the position of the focus demand that moved from the side knob to the pan handle. The camera was too big for one handed operation and the cameramen also like the old Iconoscope style demand better.

The third change was the pan head. The Colonial cameras were originally mounted on the old friction type pan heads, but they were too small in two ways. First, their support plate put too much weight on the belly of the camera which needed more distribution. Second, they could “get away” from you on a steep tilt. The answer was the Houston Fearless cradle head. A prototype was made for two of the four cameras and it worked great. When the TK40 went into production, it was supplied with the cradle head and at the same time, the smaller cradle for black and white cameras became available. Enjoy and share.

Source