[QuadList] First microprocessor in a camera or first computersetup????? Iki - RCA?

[rabruner at aol.com]

When I worked at WGN TV, we had Ikegami HK-357A cameras on the big production truck with which we did Cubs baseball.  The manuals for the computer setup for these referred to the "HK-302."  I don't know if these were ever imported or not.  I think WLS had computer set up on HK-312s, but these might have been HK-302, as they were installed very early on, I believe before the TK-47 was released.  

I worked with TK-47s at WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama.  They were a little touchy to use.  You had to have levels between the camera head and the CCU in a certain window or the auto setup would hang up.  In the early days, these levels weren't stable, and you had to check them frequently.  The camera head had a button to initiate a short auto set up conveniently placed next to the intercom mic switch.  It would initiate with the tally on.  The first modification made to those cameras was to disable that switch.  The TK-47 also had a largely unnecessary fan in the top of the camera that drew air in from the bottom, across the face of the prism, depositing a thin layer of dust there, causing loss of resolution and black flare. The high fuzzy blacks on CNN and HNN were a good example of the look this caused.  Defeating that fan was the second mod. RCA later put a toggle switch on it. 
The CCU used a CMOS microprocessor designed by RCA, called the Cosmac.  This chip was also available as a hobbyist breadboard computer called the 'Cosmac Elf.'  This was a popular item in the maintenance shop.
     About two years before we bought the TK-47s, Marconi came in to demonstrate their auto setup camera. I forget the model number. This was a very early technology, as it used motorized pots in the CCU to achieve the setup, rather than digital encoders. Also an early camera with auto setup was a three tube version of the GE camera (PE500?). This was sold by Harris, after they bought GE's TV products. I don't think it was ever sold by GE.  I don't think the auto setup covered many parameters, and I am not aware that many people ever used those cameras.
     There were other auto set up cameras that were early in the game, but I think they may have come along later than the ones mentioned above, the Hitachi SK100/110 studio camera, and the SK-97 field camera, which was an attempt to automate the SK-90, a camera that owed a lot to the TK-76.  The HL-79E by Ikegami had computer setup available.
Bob Bruner

W9TAJ






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Subject:
[QuadList] First microprocessor in a camera or first computersetup????? Iki - RCA?

Date:
Sat, 9 Apr 2011 19:55:21 EDT



First  microprocessor in a camera or  first computer setup?????
 
We have the Ikegami HK-312    and  we have  the RCA TK-47
 
And  we have  both in the  museum's collection here so......  time to make signs  write up pages etc.
 
Some have told me the RCA  was  first as a computer set up cam and others  say the HK-312  and web references can be confusing as well.
 
And  some  say  computer and  some  say microprocessor...  I guess  what I am looking for is a clarification so  I  have  my facts  straight.
 
Thanks,

Ed Sharpe, Archivist for SMECC 






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