G'day all.
A few weeks ago I bidded and won on Ebay a RCA 1846 Iconoscope camera tube for around $120
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160657252929 , surprisingly the usual mad bidders bidding $200+ on these tubes missed that auction so I got my lucky break!
Well the tube has arrived yesterday in one piece and examining it, it looks to
be in great shape! I have uploaded high resolution photos of the tube from my
mobile phone camera and they can be downloaded from here for those interested
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9W0R7JVL . Anyways examining the tube, there's no whiteness anywhere so it would likely be still under vacuum, the photo the photosensitive image plate looks immaculate, the tube over all looks to be in great condition!!!

As you camera techs know this tube is was the smaller military version of the 1850 used for the military bomber cameras in the early 1940s. Anyways I guess I am probably the first Aussie to possess an Iconoscope tube

. If anyone else in Oz has one I would love to get in touch with them! I know the Powerhouse Museum Sydney does has some developmental Emitron/Photicon and CPS Emitron tubes:
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...rch=camera+tu\
be&images=&c=&s=
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...rch=camera+tu\
be&images=&c=&s=
I of course have an intention to someday build a camera from this tube, it will
be the next project following the solid state 3" IO camera I've been occasionally mentioning. Speaking of that project I've gotten a hold of a copy
of a service manual of a suitable solid state 3" IO camera to base my project
from (thanks to Richard Diehl) which is the Visual MK10. I've read the manual
front to back and I am impressed with the circuitry layout with the circuit
boards plugging in like cards in a computer, so that will be very helpful for me
to build the circuits one module at a time!
Anyways have uploaded some lower res pics for you's to see.