The First Thomson Camera?

The First Thomson Camera? Close but no cigar…this is the second Thomson camera. Sent to us from our French friend Jorge Delendatti, this is Thomson’s 819-line monochrome model from 1946.

It was made for RTF Television Service (now TF1), and since we don’t have documentation on what kind of tube was used, two things tell me it was an Iconoscope camera. First, the date as Image Orthicons were not in service yet, and second…since it has an optical viewfinder and a turret that has 6 lenses…3 longer ones for the tube and 3 short ones for the viewfinder image, this has to be an Iconoscope camera. 

If you look closely at the top image, you can see something quite interesting, but without seeing the front of the camera (below) you just can’t imagine why there is a test pattern attachment on the front. The trick is, the test pattern is for the alignment of the lenses that feed the optical viewfinder and the longer lenses that feed the tube for broadcast. The headphones are receivers only, with the talk back mic located under the viewfinder hood. The T handle on the back is for turret rotation and the long lever on the front is for focus. Interesting cabling too. Many thanks to our friends at https://www.tvcameramuseum.org/

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