Working 1956 PYE MK3 cameras downunder!

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day all.

Here's something of interest to those who are into early image orthicon cameras, particularly British IO cameras.

Back in 1999 ex ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) cameraman/engineer Barry Lambert acquired a complete ex 1956 ABC PYE OB van with 3 PYE MK3 B&W 3" image orthicon cameras and has successfully restored the van and two of the three PYE MK3s to good working order!!!

The cameras were put into practical use in 2000 for Queen Elizabeth's visit to the National Museum construction site in Canberra which those cameras filmed the event in glorious 50s B&W complete with halos and all! I have recently found the video made from these cameras on the ABC site and thought I'd share it with you guys, the video can be viewed here http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2...04/2507171.htm , you'd think this video was made way back in the 50s as most of what can be seen looks the part of that era except those two white Holden Commodores following the Queen's Rolls Royce which also is quite modern. Anyways it's amazing to see these early cameras put back into operation again and making pictures as they did back in their heyday!

I have also attached a few articles on this PYE OB kit restoration from the BATC's CQ-TV magazines.

[Sandy G]

"The more things Change, the more they remain the Same..."

[XDCAM]

Here is the Picture of the restored ABC Outside Broadcast Van (Scanner)

[Sandy G]

What was the problem w/those old cameras ? Lack of dynamic range/headroom ? Virtually EVERY piece of "Live" video shot before the advent of color has that same "Look" to it...

[austvarchive]

thats due to the orthicon tube which was the dominant technology for imaging in the monochrome era

[old_tv_nut]

Thanks much for posting this. Now I wish we could access a higher-resolution coding of it, as I'm sure the original video was much higher quality than the reduced bit rate version.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

What was the problem w/those old cameras ? Lack of dynamic range/headroom ? Virtually EVERY piece of "Live" video shot before the advent of color has that same "Look" to it...

It's been discussed elsewhere on VK, but the thing is that for monochrome, the image orthicons were always exposed "above the knee", that is, where the highlights would reach the limit of charge possible, and the excess electrons would be distributed to nearby darker areas, giving the characteristic dark halo around bright objects like the Queen's hat. This produced an effect quite a lot like early Zerox copies, where you could not get a large solid black area either, but edges were emphasized. Also, the monochrome cameras did not have gamma correction circuits, and exposure above the knee was used to give an approximate correction.

[Aussie Bloke]

The 4.5" IO cameras seem to have a higher knee level as the B&W pictures made from them for much Aussie TV programming during the 60s/early 70s B&W era looked so good that the only time halos seem to occur is on the very bright highlights such as spot lights or in the case of outdoor broadcasts shiny objects reflecting sunlight, here's two examples good pictures from well adjusted 4.5" IO cameras are:
Coloured Balls at Sunbury 1973 festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_xRfaGK4DI (outdoor)
Axiom on Move 1971 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZg41ph7k8E (studio)
The Move clip the levels look so well set up you'd think it was done with a single tube plumbicon camera!

The 3" IO cameras were more susceptible to haloing and giving the picture characteristics that are seen in that footage of the Queen's visit. However even 3" IOs can be well set up to give a more decent picture, example the outdoor filming of Eisenhower's visit to WRC-TV 22/5/58 before switchover to colour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGgoYnXn_VE
The pictures seem to look better set up, I would say probably best performance you would get out of a 3" IO camera, indoors it looked comparable to 4.5"!

Also the RCA TK-40/41 colour cameras used the specialized 6474 3" IO tubes which has higher knee levels hence less haloing and better uniformity with shading, I wonder why these tubes weren't used in place of the 5820s in the B&W cameras considering the advantages?

[Woodronics]

Thanks Aussie Bloke for those YouBoobed links. The Sunbury footage is amazing, never would have picked it as IOs except for the odd halo

Anyone have any idea what electronic camera would have been used for the hand-held footage on stage? No way anyone's slinging a Pye Mk V on their shoulder!

[Aussie Bloke]

The portable cameras used at Sunbury are AMPEX BC-300 B&W plumbicon/vidicon cameras http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/ampex/bc300/bc300p1.htm .

[old_tv_nut]

The Sunbury 4.5-inch footage makes me wonder if those cameras had gamma correction circuits.
That would allow pictures "below the knee" to be normal brightness and gray scale. The earlier B&W cameras required a judgement on the iris setting to compromise between over-all too dark pictures, or pasty over-the-knee highlights. This also explains why the high-knee tubes were not retrofitted to B&W cameras - no gamma correction to make the linear operation useful - pictures would look too dark.

I agree, the WRC pix are much better than those of the Queen, and also note that the subject matter is less critical and is under more uniform lighting.

[austvarchive]

what station shot that footage, and what cameras do you think they were? I ask because i have some 16mm color cine footage of the event and there was a GTV PYE MKIII camera.

ATV0 had the BC-300 B&W camera, so its possible the other shots if done by the same station in the clip you posted were tk60s

[Woodronics]

I spotted a large "9" on the microwave dish on the roof of the stage in the opening shot.

Also from Sunbury in 1973 is this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhF6t3QCeLE

Gotta love the Ampex AVR-1 quad machine in the intro shot

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2...04/2507171.htm , .

What if a PYE caught Queenie being hit with a PIE

Queenie's hat looks like a truncated Stovepipe with a Sombrero brim
Her infinite wardrobe budget is sabbotaged by her utter tastelessness.
Billions $ubsidize "Royal Family" while England almost bankrupt (very high Debt/GDP ratio)

[Video Head]

Well, its nice to see what can be achieved when we all play our part - even if its small.

Barry Lambert found me when I was working for SOBO (Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation) in late 1999. Some how he had found out I (then) had two PYE MK III chains, with plenty of camera cable. He eventually made it up to Sydney, and I gave him one of my PYE head cables in late 1999 or early 2000.

Good to see an actual working museum piece - as oposed to the usual 'still life' that most museum exhibits will become.

MJH