@yagosaga: do you own an "R.C.A." TK-41 camera?

RCA TK-46 on ebay
 

No. The only camera I have is a one-tube color japanese JVC camera from 1978. But the picture is already very dim. I think to find a working TK-41 is much rarer than to find a working RCA ct-100.
One newer model is offered on ebay, a RCA TK-46:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7513503215
Meanwhile I got another email from an AK member with a location of a Jan. 1964 color telecast on NBC using TK-41 cameras, originally videotaped:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...d&vi=tech-info
These DVDs are Region 1 only and can't be displayed on European or Australian DVD players. (I see I have to get an U.S. DVD player ;-)

Steve Dichter informed me that the DVD "Cole Porter - An All-Star Tribute (Bell Telephone Hour January 28, 1964)", availbale at Amazon, is a recording of a Jan. 1964 color telecast on NBC using TK-41 cameras. It was originally videotaped. Today I received this DVD. It is a great recording in video and content. I'm really surprised how good was the color quality already in the 1960s. With a high resolution tv set some video noise is visible, but I think this depends on the lower quality of the video tape in the early 1960s. Additional to that this DVD contains some bonus tracks in color with Ethel Merman on the Bell Telephone Hour from Jan. 29, 1960! On a rectanguar screen one can see the darker corners of the TK-41 picture. This is really exciting!

Eckhard,

Thought that Cole Porter DVD would do the trick. It must have been like a shot of Viagra for your CTC-5. The 1960 Ethel Merman segment is a nice bonus. Our local Public Broadcasting station, channel 50. ran all he color Ernie Ford shows a while back. Naturally I didn't tape any of them. I won't be napping when they come around again.
And just so we don't wander to far from the original thread, Chuck Pharis is getting pretty close to that working TK-41 color.

-Steve D.

Last night I watched that old tv shows with the CTC-5. It is really an adventure for me, because this gave me a real feeling what color tv was and looks like in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the foreground it was my technical interest to study the screen and the picture: how are the lights, the color? What is with color convergence of the TK-41? What is with the picture geometry, what is with the gradation?
On videotape I have one of the first telecasts in color here in Germany from August 1967 in PAL. I should provide a copy of it on DVD so you can see the differences. But before I have to manage a video conversation on my computer.
In comparison I have to say what I have already said here: the NTSC color is much more vivid like our early color tv programmes in the late 1960s. It depends on the missing hue control in PAL. These old videotaped shows have so natural colors which I never expected for that time. (If the colors were in right hue balance.)
This are good news. If he is a good salesman he will do some good video recordings with the operating TK-41 and than he can sell them (like the copies of the indian tv test pattern.

Tk-41
 

Speaking of the TK-41 this frame capture came from the Dragnet 1967 DVD.
Friday is appearing on a TV show and he walks onstage between these two cameras!

Conrac
 

In the background of the above picture you can see this Conrac monitor.
It's B&W but they did some trickery and made it color in this shot.

Conrac-2
 

Here's the same Conrac from the front, this time it's an actual screen shot and you can tell it's B&W!

There was a TK 41 used as a prop for a recent music video. The music video is the song "Hey Ya" by Outcast. They recreated a bandstand type of show. The only thing that bothered me was the B/W set the folks were watching in the video. I would have thought they would have a color set with a TK 41. The scene kept on switching from TV studio to some folks house. I do not like the music but the video was pretty cool. It had a lot of the retro stuff in the video. I often wonder where they got the TK 41!


polaraman

Rumor has it there's a (couple) TK-41s in dead storage in Maryville College below Knoxville. I wonder if they have the whole shebang, if they are truly there. If I didn't have this bum-ass leg, I might be tempted to check it out.-Sandy G.

I suspect a lot of studio monitros were actually B&W, with maybe 1 or 2 color ones to watch the color signal.

American Bandstand? Wasn't ABC like the last ones to go color, and only then with Norelco cameras? :)

You are correct sir. Back in the 60's when I started in broadcasting we used mostly Conrac b&w monitors on the studio floor. This was mainly for reference even during our live and tape color telecasts. We would also have a regular home color receiver with a demodulator on stage so the talent could see how their make up and wardrobe ect. looked. The big time color monitors were in the control room. ABC was the last of the then big 3 networks to go color. I believe they used some RCA TK-41's for their earliest color broadcasts such as "Hollywood Palace." Chuck Pharis would know much more about early ABC
color.

-Steve D.

Thanks for the report on the DVD - I had a gift certificate for amazon, whichI have just used to orderthe DVD.

Hi Steve. Yes ABC definitely did use TK-41s for Hollywood Palace as I've downloaded a colour clip of Judy Garland singing on the show off a file sharing network and as she was singing the sequins on her dress reflecting the spotlights gave purple halos, so the show definitely used TK-41s.

Cheers
Troy

Jeez, talk about bringing back memories. Attended a wgn (taping or live?) of an old "barn dance" program when I was knee high to a grasshopper.
Didn't know tech, but after the program was done the cameras were opened up to cool, saw a pix of the rca opened up on one of the sites lately and my jaw dropped, it was the old humpback and it opened like that.
googling got me this
"Wholesome music and humor with a country sound.
Moved to WGN Radio in 1960 (from WLS, where it debuted in 1924).
Aired on WGN Radio and TV (1962+)on Saturday nights until 1969. "

Sounds about right.

wow :D