Red Skelton in Color--1962

[dtvmcdonald]

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the color from TK41s. On a properly
adjusted TV or monitor they really were not very different from today so long as there was enough light. Where I lived we had live color shows every day, starting in 1955.
I was in the studio audience for some kiddie's shows ... the colors on the
visible monitor (15GP22) were quite accurate ... nobody expected otherwise. I was even then old enough to adjust my uncle's CT-100 so that they were just as good (he had lots of signal, being one mile from the transmitter.)

All Plumbicons were noted for was no halos in too-low light. And, of course, that they were easier to adjust to get right!

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the color from TK41s. On a properly
adjusted TV or monitor they really were not very different from today so long as there was enough light. Where I lived we had live color shows every day, starting in 1955.
I was in the studio audience for some kiddie's shows ... the colors on the
visible monitor (15GP22) were quite accurate ... nobody expected otherwise. I was even then old enough to adjust my uncle's CT-100 so that they were just as good (he had lots of signal, being one mile from the transmitter.)

All Plumbicons were noted for was no halos in too-low light. And, of course, that they were easier to adjust to get right!

The main video improvement of Plumbicon cameras compared to the TK-41 image orthicons was not color but much lower noise level and greater light sensitivity.
They also did not produce dark halos around over-exposed objects like the image orthicons could. (The halos did not come from low light levels, but from highlights exposed "over the knee" of the orthicon transfer function.)

I also agree that this is not a color kinescope. It has none of the typical color/transfer function distortions of color kinescopes. It must have been quad tape originally, as you can see occasional head switching transients. But it has obviously been through many generations of equipment, and appears to have been heavily processed for noise removal, as motion appears more smeared than you would expect from the cameras. Of course, it was also deinterlaced for coding and posting to you tube, which may have contributed some to the smear. It's too bad the color is degraded, as it certainly was much better than this coming out of the cameras, even if CBS didn't have the full skill of NBC in adjusting them, or the tape generations affected it.