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  #16  
Old 06-27-2010, 04:45 PM
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BrianSummers BrianSummers is offline
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Interesting thread,

Which was the best British colour camera? You have to ask when? Its no good comparing an EMI 2001 with a Link 120 as there 15+ years between them. All the British colour cameras had good and bad points, Marconi, EMI and Link. Pye did not make a studio colour camera (except for some experimental stuff).

If I had to choose I would go for the EMI 2001, mainly for it's long life in broadcast service. The Link 120 was very good in BBC studio use, but it was soon eclipsed by more modern microprocessor based auto line up cameras like the Thomson's. The ill fated link 130 had great potential but the company (Link) collapsed just as the camera was nearing completion. I have 3 Link 130s in the collection and must get back to getting them going. There were a last generation, full micro controlled auto everything camera.

Marconi produced some fine cameras and had worldwide success with them. My personal favourite is the Marconi MkVIII. It is a first generation auto line-up camera using electric motors to drive the potentiometers. I have (potentially) 4 in working order and they are quite reliable even at 35+ years old.

The design of a camera is based on what technology is available at the time. The EMI 2001 and the Marconi MkVII Used 4 tubes as they were based on the experimental cameras that preceded them using, typically 1 Image Orthicon tube and 3 vidicon tubes, Much like the RCA TK-42 in circa 1962.

The availability of the plumbicon in 1963 changed the whole design of colour cameras. It is interesting to note that Phillips, not UK I know, went straight to a 3 tube design, presumably as they had a lead in the design being the inventors of the Plumbicon.

Quote:
Apparently, the 2001 was marketed under the Thomson name in France with vidicon instead of Plumbicon or Leddicon tubes. There was an attempt to break the 2001 in the USA via IVC, as the IVC/EMI 2001-B (4-tube) or 2001-C (3-tube),
The 2001 was indeed marked by both Thomson and IVC and I would be interested in copies of any documents or brochures relating to those marketing efforts.

About the Vidicon/Plumbicon debate, The very first Plumbicons were, correctly, described as "Lead Oxide Vidicons" and I am keen to resolve if real vidicons ( possibly 30mm size ) were used in the 2001s or the early descriptions actually refer to "lead Oxide Vidicons".

The EMI 2005, I have one in the collection, is surprisingly like the 2001 in the printed circuit boards and construction, almost to the point were some of them look interchangeable!. It was aimed at the US market and used the BIW TV81 cable to aid that market. It did little for it's sales here and few were sold in the UK.

best regards

Brian Summers www.tvcameramuseum.org
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  #17  
Old 06-28-2010, 02:58 AM
W.B. W.B. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianSummers View Post
The 2001 was indeed marked by both Thomson and IVC and I would be interested in copies of any documents or brochures relating to those marketing efforts.

About the Vidicon/Plumbicon debate, The very first Plumbicons were, correctly, described as "Lead Oxide Vidicons" and I am keen to resolve if real vidicons ( possibly 30mm size ) were used in the 2001s or the early descriptions actually refer to "lead Oxide Vidicons".
Now that you mention that, I'm interested to see if they meant actual vidicons or the "lead oxide vidicons" as you mentioned. However, I have a few links:
- Ads for IVC/EMI 2001-B/C (and other products offered by IVC) in Broadcasting magazine, March 24, 1969 (on pages 89-98):
http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive%...%2003%2024.pdf
- Cover page of Thomson brochure (from Broadcasting101.ws website):
http://www.broadcasting101.ws/france-thomson20.jpg (maybe the "Vidicon à oxyde de plomb" description was French for "Lead Oxide Vidicon," non?)
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  #18  
Old 06-28-2010, 08:22 PM
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old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
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The IVC ad distinguishes between plumbicons and vidicons. By the way, I don't believe their claim of high quality images from the vidicons at 200-400 foot candles. Outdoors with 1000-7000 foot candles, maybe OK.

And "Vidicon à oxyde de plomb" is certainly "lead oxide vidicon," a generic version of the trademarked "Plumbicon."

Last edited by old_tv_nut; 06-28-2010 at 08:26 PM.
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  #19  
Old 06-29-2010, 12:54 AM
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NewVista NewVista is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianSummers View Post
...[1984] The ill fated link 130 had great potential but the company (Link) collapsed just as the camera was nearing completion. www.tvcameramuseum.org
Thanks for your valued insights.

Surveying the LINK products at TVcameraMuseum, one sees mechanical sophistication and good performance reports.

The business environment for broadcast manufacturers was always horrific - but especially in the mid '80s as the only broadcast mass market, the USA, was emerging from a devastating double-dip recession. Link wasn't the only one to fold, as 20th century giant, RCA, also crashed. Enter Japan Inc: cross-subsidizing from vigorous consumer product profits and dumping b'cast product on USA to carve out market share. Also capitalizing on emerging CCD technology [RCA's nemesis].

Last edited by NewVista; 06-29-2010 at 01:06 AM.
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  #20  
Old 12-27-2014, 02:34 AM
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Telecolor 3007 Telecolor 3007 is offline
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I like more the "Marconi" MK8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V0md69c3SY
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  #21  
Old 01-12-2015, 01:25 PM
J Ballard J Ballard is offline
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Hi all-

I was told by a former co-worker, an ex Philips design engineer, that a 4 tube Plumbicon camera was made at either Eindhoven or Breda, in the Netherlands This was a separate luminance channel camera design, and the end result was that the management at Philips felt that the 4th tube was not worth the expense and extra effort. This despite the arguments of a large installed base of B&W receivers and the registration issues. So all Philips cameras produced at Breda were of the RGB format-and still are under the Grass Valley name.

This was in the mid 1960s, when most manufacturers were producing 4 tube cameras-luminance and RGB. The EMI 2001, with its Delta L detail corrector, was unique for certain. Saturated colors-even blues- had excellent detail, I have read. EMI seemingly understood the failure of constant luminance with this design, and offered a solution. But signal to noise suffered?

Do any working 2001s still exist? I'd love to see one with "torture test" source material.

When RCA saw the Philips/Norelco design in 1967 at NAB, a decision was made the following month to return to the RGB arrangement, and thus the TK-44A was produced. Others followed thereafter, or went out of the camera business.

A long time ago..

Regards,

Jay Ballard
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  #22  
Old 02-19-2015, 06:46 PM
Adlershof Adlershof is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NewVista View Post
Enter Japan Inc: cross-subsidizing from vigorous consumer product profits and dumping b'cast product on USA to carve out market share.
Dumping on the Comecon as well it seems to me, considering how during the last years of the 80s Sony BVP-360 cameras appeared in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR. I find this remarkable because the camera purchases of the TV stations there were quite different before. And at least at CTV there were some internal discussions about a studio camera using 2/3'' tubes.


Concerning the original topic of this thread: I found it quite interesting to read that the BBC purchased Marconi Mark VII cameras to get started with colour, because these were three years later the first colour cameras of East German DFF, too.

There the last ones remained in service in the continuity studio of the second network until 1987, when it was no longer feasible to still maintain them. It's a bit unclear what the replacements were (one account hints at Soviet KT-132 or KT-176, a single video still reveals a Bosch KCP-60 instead), but either way it is being said that they brought no discernible improvement of picture quality.

The most recent evidence of Mark VII in East German outside broadcasts I found so far on Youtube is from 1980 (here it is interesting how the comet tailing turns out blue on the red-lacking mercury vapor lamps on the stadium rim): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDIIclU2QHw#t=1458
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