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  #1  
Old 10-25-2011, 10:16 PM
Aussie Bloke's Avatar
Aussie Bloke Aussie Bloke is offline
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I now own a RCA 1846 Iconoscope!!! :D

G'day all.

A few weeks ago I bidded and won on Ebay a RCA 1846 Iconoscope camera tube for around $120 http://www.ebay.com/itm/160657252929 , surprisingly the usual mad bidders bidding $200+ on these tubes missed that auction so I got my lucky break!

Well the tube has arrived yesterday in one piece and examining it, it looks to
be in great shape! I have uploaded high resolution photos of the tube from my
mobile phone camera and they can be downloaded from here for those interested http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9W0R7JVL . Anyways examining the tube, there's no whiteness anywhere so it would likely be still under vacuum, the photo the photosensitive image plate looks immaculate, the tube over all looks to be in great condition!!! As you camera techs know this tube is was the smaller military version of the 1850 used for the military bomber cameras in the early 1940s. Anyways I guess I am probably the first Aussie to possess an Iconoscope tube . If anyone else in Oz has one I would love to get in touch with them! I know the Powerhouse Museum Sydney does has some developmental Emitron/Photicon and CPS Emitron tubes:
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...rch=camera+tu\
be&images=&c=&s=
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...rch=camera+tu\
be&images=&c=&s=

I of course have an intention to someday build a camera from this tube, it will
be the next project following the solid state 3" IO camera I've been occasionally mentioning. Speaking of that project I've gotten a hold of a copy
of a service manual of a suitable solid state 3" IO camera to base my project
from (thanks to Richard Diehl) which is the Visual MK10. I've read the manual
front to back and I am impressed with the circuitry layout with the circuit
boards plugging in like cards in a computer, so that will be very helpful for me
to build the circuits one module at a time!

Anyways have uploaded some lower res pics for you's to see.
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Old 10-25-2011, 10:24 PM
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There is a you tube video of a solid state Iconoscope camera that an elderly TV tech in Japan made. You might be able to get construction tips from him.
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Old 10-25-2011, 10:39 PM
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G'day Tom. Yep I saw that video and have posted it all over Videokarma and OldVTR Yahoo group a couple of months ago, that bloke is totally amazing!!! Chuck Pharis from http://www.pharis-video.com/ has gotten in touch with him and has gotten a DVD of some direct video output recordings from that camera which he mentioned at OldVTR. When I'm one day ready to construct an Iconoscope camera I will definitely get in touch with him. In the meantime my focus is the IO camera and I have to find means to make a move to get started on it as I've been talking to much of it and studying IO camera manuals but haven't started constructing and I feel like I'm becoming one of those "gonna" blokes who are all talk and no action, so must find a way to get started without being distracted by my heap of little "to do" stuff and family obligations!!!
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Old 10-31-2011, 07:39 AM
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I have now featured that Iconoscope tube on my website http://www.troysvintagevideo.741.com...conoscope.html

Also picked up a Westinghouse 5820 IO tube not too long ago as well which I've added to my IO tubes page (at the bottom of page)
http://www.troysvintagevideo.741.com/orthicon.html

I certainly now have a real camera tube collection happening!
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Old 11-01-2011, 11:35 PM
Ralph S Ralph S is offline
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I restored one of the world war II cameras with the 1846 tube and it works remarkably well, but requires an enormous amount of light. Pretty good picture out of doors in full sunlight; indoors, not too happy. I'd suggest, if you'd like, get hold of one of the old cameras and bring it up to snuff. It's an easy matter to change the vertical and horizontal scanning rates to fit NTSC or PAL standard rates. The only thing you'll really have to build from scratch is a filament and B+ power supply, so you don't have to deal with the original 400~ supply used in WW2.

The Japanese gentleman who built a modern version from scratch is a renown, very high end engineer who did custom jobs for Sony and others. He is NOT your average amateur, so I'd think twice before trying to tackle this job from scratch!

Good luck
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Old 11-01-2011, 11:48 PM
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I'm just glad it made the trip to Oz in one piece !!
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Old 11-02-2011, 07:38 AM
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G'day Ralph. Thanks for the advice and sharing your story on restoring a bomber camera. Occasionally WW2 cameras pop up on Ebay though I usually don't have the money to import them and the mad bidders bid them up over $200 like they do with the Iconoscope tubes, but I believe there will come a time when opportunity strikes.

Yeah doesn't surprise me Yoshi has done work for the big companies with the skills he has and I wish I had the knowledge he has with building cameras as I would of built that solid state IO camera I wanted to build by now. My expertise in building electronic gear so far is pretty much copying off schematics which is what I did with that 2/3" vidicon camera I made http://www.troysvintagevideo.741.com/mycamera.html and I have done some certificate courses in electronics years back at my local TAFE college and of course working 5 years at OmegaLec http://www.omegalec.com.au/ which gave me my handyman skills.

Hey just wondering if any video recordings were made from the bomber camera you restored as I would love to somehow obtain a DVD copy of the recording to see first hand the pictures these cameras made and am willing to either pay for the copy or send a DVD with something in return.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph S View Post
I restored one of the world war II cameras with the 1846 tube and it works remarkably well, but requires an enormous amount of light. Pretty good picture out of doors in full sunlight; indoors, not too happy. I'd suggest, if you'd like, get hold of one of the old cameras and bring it up to snuff. It's an easy matter to change the vertical and horizontal scanning rates to fit NTSC or PAL standard rates. The only thing you'll really have to build from scratch is a filament and B+ power supply, so you don't have to deal with the original 400~ supply used in WW2.

The Japanese gentleman who built a modern version from scratch is a renown, very high end engineer who did custom jobs for Sony and others. He is NOT your average amateur, so I'd think twice before trying to tackle this job from scratch!

Good luck
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Old 11-02-2011, 11:43 AM
Ralph S Ralph S is offline
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Thanks for your comments re the 1846 camera. I have no recordings of the video from my camera and the reason for this is that the camera puts out non-composite video and separate sync and these in turn go directly into a monitor which is built for separate sync and video. Further the camera wasn't built to genlock to any external equipment such as a sync generator or some other source of stable sync hence none of the vtrs I've got will accept its signal. It could be done, but frankly for my purposes I just didn't push it that far. When the camera's set up, our visitors love to see it in operation, not a recording of it working. Sorry.
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Old 11-02-2011, 12:09 PM
Ralph S Ralph S is offline
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PS: Thought I post a picture of my camera. The fan on the top is to pull the heat out of the cabinet. With 17 tubes (valves) stuffed into a mighty small space, this thing gets quite hot. The lens is a focal reducer plus the regular lens to get a wider picture. Our machinist made an adapter (on the bottom) so the camera could be mounted on a regular broadcast tripod head. The post on the wall has no relation to the camera!
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Old 11-02-2011, 04:47 PM
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G'day Ralph. Very nice pic, cool how you got it fitted to the Houston Fearless! I was just thinking, perhaps you could do an off-screen recording of the camera using a camcorder like Richard did with Chuck Pharis's working TK-31 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQN88ZC0Oo . Just wondering, how many of these bomber cameras have been restored to working order? Your restored camera was news to me, I do know Maurice Schechter restored one complete with the whole military chain http://www.qsl.net/w2vtm/mil_television_history.html .
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