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Camera Introduction

Page history last edited by David Samways 8 years, 6 months ago

 

 

 

Introduction 

 

There is no mistaking the fame of the name. Guglielmo Marconi was known worldwide as the father of radio, and started his company, Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in 1897. In 1920 RCA acquired the assets of Marconi's business in America which was their radio division. In 1946, English Electric bought the company to complement their broadcasting division and began development of the Marconi branded 3 inch image orthicon cameras. In 1948 the Mark I was introduced, the Mark II in 1950 and the Mark III in 1953.

The cameras were known and used widely in the UK and Europe, but it was not till the 1958 introduction of the Mark IV with its 4 ½ inch image orthicon tube that the Americas warmed up to Marconi. CBS loved the Marconi Mark IV because, like when the Norelco colour cameras debuted in 1965, there was finally something to buy other than RCA. Canadians and some South American counties bought a lot of them too.

The next major camera from Marconi was the Mark VII colour camera and CBS began to buy these too around 1967 to augment their huge stock of Norelco PC 60s and 70s. By 1969, The Ed Sullivan Theatre and a few other CBS broadcast centres were all using Marconi Mark VIIs.

 

Source: Eyes of a Generation

 

 

Models of camera

 

A useful summary of Marconi camera models from the late 1940s is shown below:  

           
  Year (approx.) Camera family Use Type Camera tube(s)  
             
  1948 Mk I A & B Studio Monochrome 3" Image Orthicon  
  1950 Mk II Studio Monochrome 3" Image Orthicon  
  1953 Mk III Studio Monochrome 3" and 4½" Image Orthicon  
  1958 Mk IV Studio Monochrome 4½" Image Orthicon  
  1965 Mk V Studio Monochrome 4½" Image Orthicon  
  1965 Mk VII Studio Colour 4 x 30mm Leddicons  
  1966 Mk VI Studio Monochrome 1 x 30mm Leddicon  
  1970 Mk VIII A & B Studio Colour 3 x 30mm Leddicons  
  1974 Mk VIII P Portable Colour 3 x 25mm Leddicons  
  1978 Mk IX Studio Colour 3 x 30mm Leddicons  
  1978 Mk IX P Portable Colour 3 x 25mm Leddicons  
  1985 Mk X Studio Colour 3 x 18mm Leddicons  
             

There is a very good summary of Marconi camera models with their evolution on the UK Museum of the Broadcast Television Camera website here.

 

The Camera evolution can also be shown using the Marconi BDxxx nomenclature here, the BD prefix indicating Broadcasting Division.

 

 

Photographs of on-location camera shots

 

Click here to view photographs of many of the on-location camera shots from around the world

 

 

Camera Mountings, Lenses and Tubes

 

 

Date

 

 Mountings Lenses Tubes
1952 here    
1958

here

 here  
1960 here here here
1961   here  
1962 here here here
1963 here here here
1964 here here here
1965 here here here
1966 here here here
1968 here here  
1969 here here  
       

 

  

The following articles also relate to television camera tubes:

 

  • The advantage of Photo-conductive Camera Tubes (1969) click here
  • New Lead oxide Tubes (1970) click here
  • Camera Tubes - the choice for Monochrome (1972) click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

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