The GE PE250 Early Color Television Camera

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by J Ballard

Steve,

I'll have to drag out that memo concerning "Bonanza." This was a highly rated program for NBC and it generated a lot of concern.

Bonanza might have been shot on Technicolor, where the 26s might have been more sensitive to IR, as opposed to Eastman print stock.

I promise everyone an answer.

BTW, RCA made a low cost color film camera, the PK-610 , later rebranded the TK-610, that also used auto target for stand alone operation. The results and relaibility of this low cost camera were medocre, at best.

Regards,
JB

JB

JB,

I found this reply to a post on an old VK thread: "Bonanza was processed by Consolidated Film Industries in Los Angeles. Not by Technicolor. They have always been Eastmancolor. Around 1990, Republic Pictures, the owner at the time of Bonanza, had new master prints made from the original Eastman camera negatives, which had faded slightly. They looked vastly better than they had in the past. These were 35mm. The printing negatives were worn out over the years from use and title changes, etc.
Remember when Bonanza went into re-runs, and was retitled "Ponderosa?" I still have some film reels with the name Ponderosa printed on them in white lettering. Nice.

I ran Bonanza in syndication for a number of years on 16mm film prints. They were always a bit reddish, but usually looked very nice on the air.

Now, Bonanza is on digital product and is way-over sharpened up, to me. It almost looks gritty on screen.

As for old TV film cameras, NBC used RCA chains. They needed regular attention, which I'm sure they got when someone complained about the lag issues. I can recall several times when I could see camera registration errors on network films.

Our station used RCA TK-27, and TK-28 film cameras, and TP-66 projectors. These cameras were 'tweeked' weekly. They went out of service in the mid-90's when everything went to tape. I do miss film on TV."

I have also read that Bonanza was shot in Technicolor and processed by CFI.
Seems to be some room for confirmation on what color process was used and perhaps, over the show's run, that different color processes were used.

-Steve D.

[mpatoray]

Here is a clip form "Music Scene" which aired on ABC, this is form 1969 and is of "The Archies" "Sugar Sugar" which would have been on film. Sure is a lot softer then the Live video, which would have been PC-60/70's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKywSgQ4OHE

Matt

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by mpatoray

Here is a clip form "Music Scene" which aired on ABC, this is form 1969 and is of "The Archies" "Sugar Sugar" which would have been on film. Sure is a lot softer then the Live video, which would have been PC-60/70's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKywSgQ4OHE

Seeing that clip, it looks like the film transfer would have been put through one of the two TK-26's that ABC's Prospect & Talmadge setup would've had.

[old_tv_nut]

So, is this a 4-tube telecine? Sure looks like the color is off register from the luminance in the upper right especially. The lesser smears elsewhere could just be from the multiple generations of transfer/coding the video has been through.

[J Ballard]

Hi All-

I looked for the NBC "Bonanza" memo this past weekend, and was unsuccessful, but I did locate two pieces of documentation related to this issue.

The first is a paper from the SMPTE "Color Television" collection dated November 1964, p.80, by Hank Kozanowski, head of advanced camera development at RCA, and the lead engineer on the TK-26. The paper is titled,"Infrared Transmission Characteristics of Various Color Release Prints and Their Effects on Color Television reproduction."

To receive the attention by Dr. Kozanowski, this subject had to have been of major importance. I have no doubt this was related to "Bonanza," as that show was likely NBC's biggest cash cow film program.

He describes tests done at NBC Burbank by Ken Erhardt on changes in telecine red channel black level adjustment when switching between Technicolor Imbibition print stock and Eastman 5385 film. Later, NBC-NY performed similar tests, affirming the Burbank results, showing a predominant red "haze" (elevated black level) from the Technicolor film.

Spectral measurements conducted in Camden revealed a 5-6 fold greater transmittance of near IR light in the 700-750 nM region of Technicolor print stock than the 35mm Eastman version. In addition, the original 1954 TK-26 red filter did not have a steep cutoff chaarteristic below 700 nM, but remained at about 20% transmittance beginning at approximately 650 nM.

Tests were conducted with a Technicolor T-1247 filter and also a filter from Fish-Schurman, both correcting the IR transmittance issue. The Technicolor filter began cutoff around 640 nM, and the F-S not as drastic. The final design was a combination red trim and IR cut filter, tested at NBC NY by Ed Betero, and installed in all NBC TK-26s, made by Fish-Schurman.

The second piece of documentation is an RCA Technical bulletin #G27 applying to all TK-26 models, encouraging customers to replace the original 1954 red filter with the better Fish-Schurman model, availabe from RCA as stock #230098. The change applied even to the TK-26C which was in production before the release of this paper.

The filter replacement addresses 4 items, according to the Tech Bulletin:

The modification was designed to improve the color fidelity and color balance tracking.

The amount of infrarared light transmitted through color film varies with the technique used in processing the film.

The red trim filter filter modification greatly reduces the amount of infrared light reaching the vidicon photo cathode.

The "red channel" pedestal shift, with changes in film of various processing techniques, is greatly produced. Thus the need to rebalance the equipment signals for changes in good color film is greatly reduced.

Again, I'm 99% certain this change was related to "Bonanza" and I'll keep searching for the NBC memo.

Regards,

JB

[J Ballard]

Hi all-

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Museum of Broadcast Technology (Woonsocket, RI) would be receiving a GE PE-240 color film camera shortly. Sure enough, last week a shipment arrived with the GE in good cosmetic condition, but when the top access door was opened, it was completely absent yokes, tubes, and optics! Plus the dreaded encoder .Groan.

Still, some observations can be made about this camera. First, the build quality is excellent. As with RCA, GE Electronics Park was a defense contarctor, so the wiring and layout were of top quality. The optical bedplate had to be 5/8"-3/4" thick aluminum.

There were test points on one card for masking (color matrix), suggesting a variable matrix-something not available on the TK-27. Also, there was reference to the GE "AutoTrast", unless this was a module also used in the live camera. This was an auto knee circuit that became common on Japanese and European ENG cameras.

But, there was a muffin fan on the ear of the upper housing, and from photos seen of the GE 4V design, the deflection assemblies and optics were not enclosed, as in the RCA designs. If so, I bet dust was a serious problem.

If anyone has the missiing pieces to a PE-240, please contact off list-TK41C@aol.com.

Regards,
JB

[W.B.]

To bring this back to life, it appears CBS's first GE color film chains would have been the PE-24 class - as they delivered their first 4-V color chain to the network's Broadcast Center in New York per this link to a Broadcasting magazine article in its April 26, 1965 issue when their line was the PE-24 (and about a year before they developed the PE-240 - the first references to which were in a GE ad in the March 21, 1966 Broadcasting):

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...%20electric%22

I was right, though, about both BC and Television City using GE chains.

But Broadcasting has also been illuminating in other ways. A July 18, 1966 article noted that while WCBS-TV, having access to network facilities, was already loaded for color, WCAU-TV ordered RCA TK-42 cameras; WBBM-TV, KMOX-TV and KNXT all ordered Marconi Mark VII's - and all four would receive or had received RCA TK-27 film chains:

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...rca%20tk-27%22 (p. 54)
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...t%20marconi%22 (p. 55)

[colortrakker]

WCAU had not just TK-42s but was pretty much full turnkey RCA in the late '60s - surprising for a CBS O&O. RCA Broadcast News from June 1969. Story starts pg. 24:

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/AR...ws/RCA-142.pdf

(And elsewhere in that issue is the wrapup from the 1969 NAB show that highlights the new TK-44A cameras and TCR-100 "cart" carousel some of you may be well familiar with.)

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by colortrakker

WCAU had not just TK-42s but was pretty much full turnkey RCA in the late '60s - surprising for a CBS O&O. RCA Broadcast News from June 1969. Story starts pg. 24:

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/AR...ws/RCA-142.pdf

(And elsewhere in that issue is the wrapup from the 1969 NAB show that highlights the new TK-44A cameras and TCR-100 "cart" carousel some of you may be well familiar with.)

Notice they didn't mention what videotape equipment 'CAU used, though by the photos it looks like Ampex VR-2000's.