Your Oldest Camera

[chris319]

What is the oldest TV camera you've ever used, either as a camera operator or as a video operator/maintenance?

We had three RCA TK-15 vidicon cameras when I was at San Francisco State University from 1973 - 1978. It was a gray box full of tube electronics with a lens turret which took C-mount lenses. One camera had a zoom lens; a push-rod controlled the zoom and you focused it by turning a knob which was secured to one end of the push-rod. Exposure was controlled at an operator control panel by varying the target voltage. The beam-current control was used to clip the whites by means of beam starvation. Being vidicons the image was full of lag and smear on moving objects.

[Jim]

TK 31 FIELD Camera, TK 21 film chain camera

[chris319]

TK 31 FIELD Camera

Where and for whom did you operate this TK-31?

[Jim]

KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa, late 1950s