UK - Dual Color & B&W camera setup
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o-3L3qbypo

At ~2:50, there's a demo of a dual color/B&W camera setup, anyone have more info about this setup?


Kirk Bayne

Don't have any info, but thanks for posting this.

Don't have time to watch, but some early color films and a color system proposal in Mexico both were dual color (orange-cyan) which IIRC was the I axis of IQ demodulation in a 3 color system.

From memory, this was done at the ATV studios in Wembley, on the outskirts of London. The UK barely had colour at that point and good PAL to NTSC standards conversion simply didn't exist then. If you wanted to shoot for both the UK and US market you could do it on film or you could have NTSC colour cameras working alongside 625 line monochrome ones.

Not sure if this 100% accurate (I'm on holiday and away from my reference books) but it's along the right lines.

That' what the YouTube video in post #1 says and shows them doing.

I recall the exchange of programming between the UK and Canada/US in the late 60s. ITV went colour in 1969 at the time of their switch to 625 in 1969.

Peter Cook an Dudley Moore reunited for the ITV series "Goodbye Again" in 1968. ITV was still black and white 405 lines and the dual camera setup I recall was to provide domestic 405 monochrome and US 525 colour.

I recall watching monochrome video conversion 625/405 to 525 in the 1960s. The CBC Canada and earliest PBS aired telecast of the BBC2 625 line black and white series the Forsythe Saga looked very much like optical conversion. The dynamic vertical resolution was horrible: I recall the credit roll and the end was virtually unreadable.

The introduction of the McMichael ACE, ITV DICE and BBC conversion equipment from 1969 onwards is well documented.