Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianSummers
I think you are quite a bit low in your number estimate, a quick count up shows I can account for some 72 cameras purchased by the BBC alone, Thames and a lot of the independents had them as well,
Rather than a loss maker I would have thought the LDK5 were great success for Philips.
The design originates from Philips USA company, Norelco, as the PC100. Large Numbers were sold there as well.
Brian S
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Yes, the LDK5 was quite a success for Philips, and there were a great many more than 12 in Australia.
The design was not however originated from Norelco, they simply received cameras made in Holland badged for Norelco. The design was wholly Dutch. Of the original two lab prototypes, we received one at our company in Australia because of our pioneering efforts with Phillips cameras. That camera went on to live a long and productive life at AAV Australia. It was eventually joined by another then an LDK25 for studio use.
Later, when the LDK15 was designed, another lab prototype was delivered to us for field appraisal, and was used to shoot local drama series alongside film cameras, surprising the locals by its remarkable flexibility.
The original prototype LDK5 (number two in the series) had a distinguished career, being used to shoot Paul McCartney's tour Wings Over Australia, the Bolshoi Ballet, Liberace concerts, John Denver, and many others. It was the first camera on location at the tragic collapse of the Westgate Bridge killed 35 workers in 1970, and was used by Kerry Packer for evaluation of the World Series Cricket as a television event. The coloured players uniforms and coloured cricket balls were tested in secret using this camera.
It spent most of its life in a special outside broadcast van with its younger brother and an Ampex AVR2 recorder. I spent several years wrangling that van as a one-man outside broadcast operation. I drove the van, rigged it, operated CCUs and the AVR2, then at the completion of the OB, packed it all up and drove it back to base. Later I would also edit the footage on a CMX300 computer editing system when we got back to base. It often made for very long days.
We had a special backpack made for difficult locations where the LDK5s could be split into lens and camera body, then each half was loaded into the backpack and I would then hoist it on my back and climb up scaffolds or other structural parts to rig the camera.
Geoff