Ever See One Of These? This Is The GE PE 25 Color Camera
There are not many photos of this camera, but thanks to David Crosthwait at DC Video, we have a new black and white photo taken at KCOP in Los Angeles. The color photo (the only one we know of) shows our friend Mike Clark with a PE 25 at WCNY Syracuse NY. By the way, the Marconi Mark IVs in the background are from ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’….those are The Beatles cameras.
GE had a camera called the PE 15 that looked almost like this but it’s handles were at the top of the doors instead of underneath. This camera debuted in 1965 and as usual for GE cameras, were mostly used in west and southwest markets. If anyone know if one of these cameras survives, please let me know. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
It’s a monster!
Did they start the design with a refrigerator?
Two PE-25s were lent to WCNY (PBS) for our annual fundraiser, “Tel-Auc.” The engineers spent days getting them ready for air. No zooms, either! In 1971, GE (with their manufacturing plant in Syracuse) donated 3 PE-400s.
I’m surprised GE didn’t sell more of the PE-15s especially, since they were lighter than the equivalent RCAs and partly transistorized. The more advanced PE-25s arrived about the
time the Plumbicon revolution was getting started. IOs were clearly on the way out.
It is quite a leap for General Electric to go from the oversized PE-25 to the relatively svelte PE-250 in only a few years.