 more photos as seen in TV studios in the 1950's and '60's |
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 Another shot of Milton Berle at NBC |
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 TK-40 assembly line, 1954. On the right rear of the camera body, the split, circular opening is an air vent for one of the image orthicon pickup tube. There are two additional vents on the rear of the camera. |
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Nanette Fabray sings in front of a prototype color camera, 1951. In late 1940's-early 50's, RCA was continuing to develop their color television camera (which eventually became the TK-40 introduced in 1953).Notice the script on the side of the camera says "RCA Television) (versus the TK-40/41 which had a "Color Television" script). Also, the camera is black (versus the silver colored TK-40/41), and there are no vents in the viewfinder on top of the camera. The TK-40/41 tapers to a narrower width at the front, where as this prototype has flat sides with no taper. I would speculate that the production camera used a silver color to reflect the heat which would have been absorbed by a black camera. After all, the early color cameras required a LOT of light - without plentiful air conditioning, the studios would be unbearably hot and the cameras would suffer performance problems from overheating. This would also explain the slotted vents which appeared in the TK-40A and TK-41 cameras.
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| The last incarnation of the TK-40/41 series was the TK-41C, seen here at the 1962 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention. This photo is from the May 1962 issue of RCA Broadcast News.
"TK-41C color TV camera, standard of the industry. New features for 1962 include stabilized circuits for simplified operation, precision yokes for precise registration, and prism optics for sharp clear color pictures." |
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 Reeves Television Tape Service Center, New York - 1962 |
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 Uh oh, a suitor waits in the wings! The TK-41 will soon be replaced by RCA's new TK-42 "M-channel" color camera. In addition to the three color (RGB) vidicon pickup tubes, the TK-42 adds an image orthicon monochrome fourth tube. Shown here is the TK-42X experimental camera and a TK-60 monochrome camera at the 1962 NAB convention. "One of the first sights to greet visitors to the RCA exhibit was the operating live TV studio and an introduction to a new generation in broadcast equipment." |
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 The production TK-42 color camera (Webmaster note: my memory of this camera is that it produced inferior pictures to the TK-41. The images were noisy (grainy), and most irritatingly, the built-in zoom lens produced erratic zooming motion. The zoom was operated by a crank on the rear of the camera similar in appearance to the old turret handle on the TK-41. It must have been awkward for the operator to zoom with this type of control, and the mechanical cable connecting the zoom control handle to the lens was subject to binding, invariably creating jerky, chattering zooms. |
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 Rear view of the TK-42. Notice the infamous U-shaped lens controls on the back of the camera. Left handle is focus, right is for zoom motion. Chattering zoom motions plagued the TK-42 from the beginning. The TK-43 was basically the same as the TK-42, but with a new approach to zoom and focus controls. NBC chose not to install TK-42/43's in their network operations. NBC's old TK-41's continued to produce superior pictures into the early 1970's, partially due to modified low-noise transistorized pre-amps. |
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 The RCA TK-44 (seen here at WTMJ-TV Milwaukee) was finally a worthy successor to the TK-41. The TK-44's plumbicon tubes produced rich, crisp, clean color images. NBC network facilities finally replaced their TK-41's with these excellent new cameras. |
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RCA's color camera lineup in 1967shows the oft-maligned TK-42 and 43 cameras and a pre-production mockup of the far superior TK-44. |
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RCA's broadcast equipment line in 1967 shows a mockup of a pre-production TK-44 camera in the foreground. |
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Thanks to Chuck Pharis, Rich Whitley, NBC, Dale Walsh, Jan Kasoff, Ed Ellers, Barry Mishkind, Lytle Hoover, Tom Kredatus, Chuck Young, and Robert Ingram for some of the photos. Do you have TK-41 photos to share? Please contact me |
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comments? send me an email |
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Visit my Color Television Home Page Learn more about the Color Television Revolution See videos of the original NBC peacocks and ABC and CBS color presentation logos See photos from my boyhood tour of KARD-TV in 1964 See photos of NBC Color City Studios in Burbank, California in 1955 See photos of my TK- 41 color television camera Take a tour of KSTP-TV in 1962 and see my TK-41 camera in service when it was new See an RCA 2" Color Television Tape Recorder See a video montage of an historic demonstration of the RCA compatible color system to the FCC See an excellent 1953 RCA brochure about the development of Color Television Watch the oldest surviving color videotape...the dedication of NBC's Washington, DC color studios in 1958 Watch An Evening With Fred Astaire the oldest surviving color videotape entertainment program (October 1958) Read the fascinating story of the restoration of "An Evening with Fred Astaire" Watch the oldest surviving videotape recording The Edsel Show - October 1957 Want to read more about early color television? Check out these links: Read NPR's coverage of color TV's 50th anniversary visit the late Ed Reitan's website - a very informative site about early color TV visit Bobby Ellerbee's fascinating and compreshensive television history website Eyes Of A Generation visit Chuck Pharis's site to see his collection of antique TV cameras and other early broadcast equipment visit Barry Mishkind's website to see the RCA Television Equipment Archive visit Steve Dichter's CT-100 website to see Steve's vintage color television page |
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