Vidicon Film-Reproduction Cameras

Analysis and experience show that an ideal device for television film reproduction should have high resolution, excellent signal-to-noise ratio, wide contrast range, a stable gamma characteristic with a slope of 0.6 and good black-level control. It should operate with standard television projectors. Our work during the past two years has convinced us that the vidicon camera comes closest to this ideal. In addition to the characteristics already mentioned, the vidicon camera can be operated nonsynchronously, making it possible to provide local film inserts in network programming. The sensitivity for film operation is approximately three times greater than with the iconoscope, providing a large increase in projector lamp life. The simplicity and stability of a vidicon camera system make it very attractive for “unattended” operation with a minimum of adjustment and attention. — A particular form of vidicon film camera with its deflection, video and control circuits is described and illustrated. The problems and possible solutions of optical and electrical multiplexing for typical television broadcast operation are discussed. A broadcasting requirement for the reproduction of transparencies, opaques and other more specialized opaque presentations can be filled by equipment which is now in a product-development phase. We believe that, with the developments now available, the television broadcaster can provide picture quality in this field comparable with the best live pickup performance with equipment requiring only nominal attention and skill.

Print ISSN

0898-042X

Published

1954-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J01730