The GE PE250 Early Color Television Camera

[John Hafer]

Yeah, I agree in that GE must have had two different top designs for their PE-240 color film camera. I have ads for both their 1st. generation (PE-24) and 2nd. generation (PE-240) and both show the same square edged top. Yet my other ad that I attached in my message above shows the rounded top, similiar to the ones show in the CBS image above, so I really don't know.

One thing though, CBS started regular color broadcasting in the fall of 1965 so they must have already had some of their new color film chains in place by then.

I also checked an old TV-GUIDE dated March 1964 and in the issue, there is an article on color television by David Lachenbruch. He writes that, "...it [CBS] is installing $1,500,000 worth of color equipment in its New York production center, now under construction."

Thus, I am assuming that they installed their new color equipment in the spring of 1964, which would place everything a little earlier than 1965 or 1966. And, I am assuming they are talking about color film and tape equipment and not about colorizing their live studios, which I think came later when they purchased their first Norelco PC-60 (or maybe PC-70) cameras that became available in circa 1965.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

One thing though, CBS started regular color broadcasting in the fall of 1965 so they must have already had some of their new color film chains in place by then.

I also checked an old TV-GUIDE dated March 1964 and in the issue, there is an article on color television by David Lachenbruch. He writes that, "...it [CBS] is installing $1,500,000 worth of color equipment in its New York production center, now under construction."

Thus, I am assuming that they installed their new color equipment in the spring of 1964, which would place everything a little earlier than 1965 or 1966. And, I am assuming they are talking about color film and tape equipment and not about colorizing their live studios, which I think came later when they purchased their first Norelco PC-60 (or maybe PC-70) cameras that became available in circa 1965.

It's quite possible that some PE-24 class GE film chain cameras had the same round tops as on that PE-240 in the ad you attached, if they started acquiring color equipment in New York in March 1964. (And they'd obviously be referring to the Broadcast Center on 57th Street in that article.) Especially since I've seen references in old Broadcast Engineering issues to PE-24-A's as well as PE-24's. It was also around that time that Ampex first rolled out their high-band VR-2000 quad VTR. And CBS's mentality in terms of buying broadcast equipment, as my understanding, was "anybody but RCA." The PC-60's first came round in 1965, and the PC-70 was introduced in early 1966. So the colorization must've been a long process for CBS.

But also, when initially equipping the Broadcast Center, CBS had transferred RCA TK-26 film chains that had originally been at "Studio 72" on 81st Street and Broadway, to the new studio.