TABLE OF CONTENTS The first commercially available color cameras for the FCC-approved 525-line NTSC broadcasting system in 1952 utilized three image-orthicon pickup tubes and vacuum-tube electronic circuitry.
The bulky packaging of the camera head, and the instability of both the pickup tubes and the accompanying circuits, significantly impeded the widespread use of color for broadcasting. Consequently, the majority of programming from studios and field locations continued in black and white, with color limited to one-time specials and sports, and a few regularly scheduled programs with recurring sets and relatively simple production requirements.
It was not until the introduction of three-tube, and later the four-tube, highly stable all-transistorized Plumbicon cameras in 1960 and 1961, respectively, that a rapid replacement of black-and-white cameras with color cameras using Plumbicon and similar lead oxide pickup tubes was undertaken in the U.S. by network broadcasters, to be followed shortly by affiliated and independent stations.
Concurrent with the development of the Plumbicon was the introduction of prism optics and zoom lenses. Cameras employing these features established the design concepts for present-day cameras.
During the past 50 years or so, much has been done to make the color camera smaller, lighter, more stable and rugged, with improved sensitivity, resolution, and colorimetry. This has been accomplished through major advances in the design of lenses, light-splitting optics, pickup devices, integrated and microprocessor circuitry, and signal multiplexing on interconnecting cables. These developments have...
