View Full Version : Working Iconoscope camera in Japan!!! :D


Aussie Bloke
07-26-2011, 08:44 AM
G'day all.

You've got to see this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5l39WsnKo

Someone in Japan has built a solid state Iconoscope camera and has got it to work VERY good!!! :D In this 15 minute mini documentary you will see the process of the development of this camera from the design work to the assembly to the testing and adjustments to field testing out on remote with direct video feed!!! :D

The guy who built the camera went through two bad tubes before getting a hold of a good one which was a similar experience Paul Marshall of Golden Age TV had with his solid state photicon camera, first tube was poor, 2nd tube worked great but had a crack and went to air, 3rd tube lucky, worked great and stayed good!!! :D

Looking at the direct video feed towards the end of the video my jaw dropped at how awesome the pictures are that come from these early tubes, it is just simply WOW!!! :D The picture quality is comparable to modern pictures of today but in B&W, you'd think those pictures were made on an 80s plumbicon ENG camera with it's colour burst switched off!!! :D It is just so amazing that live TV pictures were THAT GOOD at the beginning of electronic television!!! :D

I have attached some stills from the direct video feed portion of the video clip.

To finish off, I will say this is our first chance to get a real glimpse of what television pictures were like in the earliest years of television!!! :D

Aussie Bloke
07-26-2011, 08:45 AM
A few more video stills

Sandy G
07-26-2011, 09:19 AM
Wow...

bandersen
07-27-2011, 10:21 PM
Amazing craftsmanship! I'd love to have a workshop like that (and the skills to use those tools) :yes:

Aussie Bloke
07-28-2011, 08:13 AM
Me too!!! Plus his wealth of knowledge on building cameras from scratch!!! :)

jpdylon
07-28-2011, 11:52 AM
truly incredible, the skill of that craftsman putting that camera together. Amazing technology for the time!

Aussie Bloke
07-28-2011, 11:30 PM
G'day all. Thought I'd also add to this thread a picture collage of stills I made from that iconoscope video and a 3" image orthicon video (Eisenhower dedication to WRC-TV 1958) and a video I made from my 1974 Sony AVC-3250CE 2/3" vidicon camera to compare the differences between the 3 generations of camera tubes. Love to hear comments on it.

I tried to attach the picture but the stupid attachment manager says I already added it even when renaming it, so the picture can be viewed in my reply to the other thread on this Iconoscope camera http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=251709 .