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Old 03-15-2017, 08:24 PM
Dave A's Avatar
Dave A Dave A is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SE Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,529
80's tube ENG cams fun

To all of my fellow ancient broadcasters, check out my 1984 Sony BVP-30 with the first Betacam BVV-1 back and the original Fuji 12x lens. Plumbs in the cam and a record only deck. Record and pray. I bought it used in 1986 or so for $18k. What was I thinking but I had a production business to make work and I needed the best...of the day. And it has been around the house since then as a doorstop as technology left it in the dust. Now it needs some history love.

It is the last gasp of Sony ENG tube cams for the field and the first Betacam field deck. And it still works like a champ. I dusted it off and after mistakenly loading a SP tape that will not work and it is alive with a plain Beta tape. It is as pretty in color, registration and recording as 30 years ago. The color reproduction is vibrant beyond chip color. Plumbs rule. Now I have to get something digitized for stills to show. The cam mic is on the bench for remounting. Stay tuned. I just started.

It weighs a ton and I am missing the tripod latch base but that is for later. If you look at the cam closely you will see a RCA Victor brass logo on the side. I did that in the day removing the Sony badge and subbing a 50's RCA tv brass script just to confuse the locals. They looked and scratched their heads.

I would like to hear from others that may still have working Plumbicon cams still making a picture. Ikegami HL-series cams are welcome. Or am I alone as usual.
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Last edited by Dave A; 03-19-2017 at 06:15 PM. Reason: add pix and correct item
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