Rca Tk-41

[Telecolor 3007]

Just curios, what made this cameras so relaible?

[julianburke]

This was an all tube color camera just like the TK11/31 B&W camera which was a workhorse in the industry for all of the '50's and '60's. Their problems were well known and most of the time an easy fix. Tubes are also forgiving under critical moments unlike transistors. These cameras were built to be serviced and easy access to all componets was engineered in an overkill design.

TK42's were designed with plug in modules with a lot of germanium transistors which by todays' standards are terrible. The edge connectors on the boards also gave some trouble. Current surges in supply power were common and seemed to bother the '42 whereas the '41 was not as succeptable. Any engineer who worked these cameras will pretty much tell you the same thing. However the '41 was bothered by heat buildup so the later ones had a blower system inside them. The TK60 B&W had a chimney on top of it for good reason.

[Telecolor 3007]

What critical moments?

[julianburke]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

What critical moments?

It was late and what I meant to say was at certain times if you had some kind of power surge or something bumped the camera, the '42 would seem to react to it. A 42 could have a color drop out, sometimes suddenly no color, adjusting focus or zoom and cable would jump, and other assorted video problems due to the nature of the edge connectors on the modules. Excessive humidity sometimes would find its' way to the camera (we couldn't figure that one out either) closing the side hatch could sometimes knock it out of whack or an intermittant we could never find. Yup, any institution who had one didn't keep it around for long. They didn't seem to get any better with age either. I know of some who had '42's who wished they had their '41's back until the '44's came along.