Early CCD Camera History
 

I'm looking for information on the very early development of the CCD TV camera.


The first camera that had a performance good enough to be offered as a broadcast camera was the RCA CCD-1 introduced in 1983. This is fairly well documented and it is it's predecessors that I need information for.

The history of CCD Charge coupled devices goes back to 1969 and there is a history synopsis on Wikipedia.

I wish to document the developmental TV cameras. I have made a start on this, see https://www.tvcameramuseum.org/earlyccd/ccdthumb.html with cameras by Bell Labs, Fairchild, RCA and others.

Information, dates, pictures. specifications, documentation etc are what is needed.

I have added quite a lot of new pictures and information see https://www.tvcameramuseum.org/earlyccd/ccdthumb.html There are still a few gaps to fill as the information becomes available.

I need more information/pictures about the work at Bell Labs. I have a number of papers describing the progress in CCD operation and fabrication, but little in the way of part numbers or pictures of cameras that incorporated devices.

Also need a picture of any camera that used the GEC Hirst Research Centre, Wembley, CCD sensor type MA357.



Regards Brian

Visit the Virtual Broadcast TV Camera Museum

That's an opportunity to put one question on the table: Can someone point to actual video of this camera, of course if possible with bright lights appearing in frame? I wonder how its picture looked already for years, after reading a comment from a camera operator how he told the RCA representative at NAB that "my Ikegami is shooting circles around it".

Would be also interesting to compare it with the first CCD broadcast camera from Sony, the BVP-5 with its ugly red smear and colorimetry inferior to the BVP-3 with Saticons (let alone Plumbicon cameras). Here I never ceased to wonder what caused the smear to be red, considering that CCDs had rather too much than too little sensitivity to red, so there would be no apparent need for a particular boost of this channel.

What kind of smear? Of highlights, or everything? If it was only bright spots, that would make sense as an overload of the charge wells.

Sorry for the late reply:

Of course the vertical smear on bright spots. Here are two examples, apparently from this first (or at least early) generation of Sony CCD cameras:

https://my.mail.ru/mail/tina-12366/v...247/24915.html
https://my.mail.ru/mail/tina-12366/v...403/23467.html

Noteworthy also colorimetry and noise. I'm not surprised that Sony at this point still made tube cameras, too, such as the BVP-360.

Actual footage from the RCA product could give a hint at the imager it used. Somehow I would not be surprised if it was the same one than in the Sony BVP-5.

Me too for the late reply..I remember back in the late 1970's that one of the electronics magazines had a project in making a CCD black and white camera..

Cant recall if it was Radio-Electronic or Popular Electronics or others around that era..

The magazine probably is up on the American Radio History site like everything else we enjoy from there...

I believe the chip was from Reticon corp which was famous for their sad1024 reverb chip..Radio Shack sold 1000's of these for their project boards which I built two and the parts supply houses supply the music equipment industry before the Panasonic's BBD MN chips took over..

The image was probably similar or worse then the Fisher - Price PXL2000 kids B&W "Audio cassette format" camcorder ..I have 2 of those here..