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A Rarity…The Ampex/ABC Hand Held Cameras

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

A Rarity…The Ampex/ABC Hand Held Cameras

This was developed by Ampex for ABC Sports with ABC paying the developmental costs. There were two versions, but I think both looked just alike. One version had the BC100 color camera teamed with the VR 3000 videotape recorder in the backpack and the other backpack had a transmitter in the VR 3000 case for wireless use.

According to our friend Don “Peaches” Langford, who was one of the first to use this, it was first seen at Pebble Beach for the ABC Bing Crosby golf tour. From there, they went to the ’68 Winter Olympics in France then to Mexico City for the Summer Olympics. Don used it on ABC college football and then again in Miami where he used it at the national political convictions which were both held there in ’68.

The BC 100 camera used two tubes, one tube had a spinning wheel with red and blue filters, the other tube was green and it was also used for luminance. Don carried a Pepsi can in the case so the video man could paint it to the colors of the can he had at the console. It used a very long wound “piano wire” for the delay. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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10 responses to “A Rarity…The Ampex/ABC Hand Held Cameras”

  1. Don Langford

    The Battery in the back pack was a wet cell and I was told if it leaked I was to use a special liquid to neutralize the acid. Peaches

  2. Mary Rita Smith Shull

    My brother George Smith, worked at ABC7Chicago back in those days!

  3. Don Cox

    Here is a shot of my VR3K. Anyone know it’s history?

  4. Don Langford

    This camera had an antenna on top of the back pack and the person operating the micro reciver had a foot switch to rotate the antenna however at times a radio signal would start turning it so I had to turn that off and turn the antenna and shoot at the same time, it got very tricky at times. But we did have fun.

  5. Kenneth Johannessen

    Man, I wonder how much that sucker weighed!

  6. David Crosthwait

    Another angle of this camera from the ’68 conventions.

  7. Steven Bradford

    Was the delay line so the color fields would sync up?

  8. Chuck Pullen

    [Insert LiveU backpack joke here]

  9. Jerry Skora

    > Samsonite one suiter = (1) VR-3000

  10. Troy Walters

    Very interesting arrangement for the colour tube setup I thought it was standard 3 rgb tubes

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