RCA Hawkeye Camera Confusion

[Adlershof]

Originally Posted by BrianSummers

were RCA using up old labels??

Or maybe (that's of course entirely speculation) using up a stock of already made tubes? Their PR reads as if the HC-2 used different Saticon tubes than the HC-1 while the Plumbicon option had, interestingly, been removed.

Could it be that after the HC-2 they withdrew their Hawkeye recording system altogether? Judging from the body case styles I would call the CCD-1 a successor of the HC-2, but there is no mention of a dockable recorder anymore.


Btw, I find it nice how they bragged about the CCD-1 being content with 30 lux. I think the BVP-3 was, too.

And it would be interesting to see real footage of the CCD-1, in particular in comparison to the BVP-5 (which still had shortcomings, in particular the ugly red smear). I think it was somewhere else where I read the account of a cameraman who discussed the CCD-1 with a RCA representative and told him "my Ikegami 79 is shooting circles around it".

[BrianSummers]

I would agree that the CCD-1 is later than the HC-2, but I do not have fine details of the RCA time line for these. It would seem to me that the team developing the CCD sensors just took the HC-2 body and replaced the tubes with the appropriate circuit changes.

It would have been a much cheaper option to launch what was a 1st generation prototype camera. RCA had a long development program over many years and this would be the toe in the broadcast market.

It can't be far away from the point were RCA gave up making cameras, perhaps someone can enlighten us with more details.

Brian