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Old 12-07-2016, 05:41 AM
April S. April S. is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: The midwest
Posts: 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chip Chester View Post
If you mean 'brand name with catalog number' I can't help you there. You'd need 70's catalogs, and a hope and prayer of actually finding the item.

If you mean mechanisms, then check out #92 at 507movements.com:

http://507movements.com/mm_092.html

(Do this with a full cup of coffee, because it's an interesting site.)

On #92, imagine the wheel connected to a low-speed electric motor (perhaps variable) and the positioning arm of the camera head attached to the green sliding box. (Note that you don't need the channel the green box slides in. Just the arm between the wheel and the camera handle.) We're assuming the camera is mounted on a standard pan/tilt tripod head, with tilt locked off as needed for framing, and pan not locked off, allowing the camera to pan left/right as driven by the arm.

The hardest part will be sourcing the motor. It seems that two or three RPM would be about right. Maybe a Lego motor with a gearbox. The whole thing could be made by a 7th grader with a Lego Mindstorms kit... without even using the computer part.

There are many, many Google hits for pan/tilt mechanisms, most of which are oriented towards today's miniature, light-weight cameras, or surveillance/videoconference PTZ setups. None of that will likely hold up if you're using a vintage, 40 pound camera.

I have a vintage-looking heavy duty PTZ head set aside in the attic for some forgotten use. To use that, one would have to design a limit-switch setup to constrain the pan arc, and it would be noisier (due to gearmotors) and would wear just in the arc used. The mechanism cited above is a better approach. You could probably throw one together on one trip thru the hardware store, except for the motor.

Keep in mind that the mechanism won't be seen on-camera, just the camera-panning result.

Chip
I cannot recall if the channel was broadcast in color or black and white but considering the use would either be a less "fancy" broadcast TV camera?

Any ideas what kind of camera they would use in the late 1980's?

Last edited by April S.; 12-07-2016 at 05:49 AM.
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