RCA Hawkeye Camera Confusion

[J Ballard]

Hello Brian-

After speaking with two former RCA employees, the HC-2 had a more robust enclosure similar to the CCD-1, replacing the thin sheet metal cover. It was painted similar to the CCD-1 colour scheme. The VF may have been different, and the switch cluster was rearranged in the -2 model.

RCA had hoped that Philips would produce a 1/2" format PBO tube, but they never delivered, so the cameras used Saticons. Both used the Chromatrak component recording format, which did indeed look better than Umatic.

The following year at NAB 1984, Sony introduced Betacam, and the rest is history.

The plan was that RCA and Matsushita would join in a competitive alliance against Sony, but RCA's available capital money was going into Video disc. The RCA Board in NY starved the division, and it announced its closing in Oct.1985. Any "New" projects came out of sustaining funds.

Enjoy your camera museum site immensely!

Regards
JB

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by J Ballard

RCA had hoped that Philips would produce a 1/2" format PBO tube, but they never delivered, so the cameras used Saticons. Both used the Chromatrak component recording format, which did indeed look better than Umatic.

The following year at NAB 1984, Sony introduced Betacam, and the rest is history.

The plan was that RCA and Matsushita would join in a competitive alliance against Sony, but RCA's available capital money was going into Video disc. The RCA Board in NY starved the division, and it announced its closing in Oct.1985. Any "New" projects came out of sustaining funds.

RCA and Panasonic (née Matsushita) did indeed join forces to produce a professional camcorder. RCA was doing research on component video recordind and CCD imaging since the 1970s, while Panasonic had been the co-creator of VHS and participated in earlier VCR developments.

RCA and Panasonic presented a recording camera system for ENG at 1981 NAB convention. Each company developed their own camera head but used the same recorder made by Panasonic.

The recorder used standard VHS cassettes with the mechanism adapted from VHS tape recorder. Panasonic called its complete system “M-format”, alluding to the tape lacing method used on VHS machines; the Panasonic camcorder was named “Recam”.

RCA named the camcorder "Hawkeye" and the new recording format “ChromaTrak”. The format improved chrominance resolution, distortion, and noise by a factor better than 3x compared to 3/4 -inch cassette systems. Two audio tracks and a dedicated time code track were included.

The Sony unit, which did not have official name at that time, but later was branded “Betacam”, was also presented at NAB '81 still in development stage and was designed to use Betamax videocassettes.

In October 1982, WKBD-TV 50, Detroit, purchased the RCA Hawkeye video recorder/camera system, becoming the first station in the world fully equipped in the new 1/2 -inch broadcast format.

You can read more on the history of RCA/Panasonic vs. Sony rivalry to develop half-inch component video format, or you can watch a video.

[jhalphen]

Hi to all,
Hi DVtyro,

Ampex (where i worked), also signed up with the Panasonic Recam system.

I manned a small booth at the Cannes Film Festival to demo the advantages of component video recording for lightweight movie filming.

We had a 2 VCR setup, recorder/player + player only + editing desk and a camcorder to roam & shoot throughout the expo.

Amusing : weather was very hot and dry and the booth's carpet generated a lot of static electricity so desk unit transport controls often went berserk when the keyboard was touched, requiring machine shutdown & CPU reboot.
I got seriously concerned about the risk of permanent machine failure.

Solved the problem on the 2nd day by "watering" the carpet with a gardening can which killed the static buildup. Machines worked OK after this fix.
This amused people, word got around & people took photos of "the crazy sales engineer who waters his booth every morning" as i had to cross the entire expo hall with my can to fetch the water.

Fun times...

We never sold any Recams , at least in the EU.
Then in 1986 Ampex partnered with Sony on the Betacam bandwagon and what a hit that was...

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France