Ampex 300 ENG Camera
This was a small monochrome camera which was used in “ENG” mode with a very large 2 inch quadruplex video recorder VR3000. This debuted around 1967 and was just in time for use at the US political conventions for floor coverage.
From the October 1957 edition of “Radio Age” magazine (page 20), here’s a shot of the first use of a portable camera on the sidelines. The article describes the 4 camera coverage plan, plus the sideline mini cam that at this time was all directed by the man who would become a legend in sports […]
History’s Most Infamous Game Show Footage…’Twenty One’ This show was done live from NBC Studio 6B, Wednesday night, November 19, 1956. This was the fourth and final round of play on ‘Twenty One’ between Charles Van Doren and Herb Stempel. The other three were tie games…21 to 21. The video is Qed to the point […]
January 1, 1965…50 Years Ago Tonight! Television History Was Made! At 6:55 PM, New Years Day night, Soupy Sales did a one minute adlib that is still talked about. It was the famous “Green Pieces Of Paper” incident. Here, thanks to Barry Mitchell, is Soupy telling the story of the gag that almost cost him […]
Ultra Rare! ‘Garry Moore Show’…Rundown Sheet, December 1, 1959 This rare piece of history comes to us from our friend David Schwartz. This is from the second season of the second version of ‘The Garry Moore Show’ which was a one hour, weeknight version and originated from CBS Studio 50 – The Ed Sullivan Theater. […]
How much did it weigh? It looks extremely heavy on the back.
…I recall watching archive videos of NCAA football games on ABC/ESPN Classics, and this camera was used on the sidelines !
How did they get the vacuum for the headwheel tape guide?
I used the Vr3000. What a pain! Hard enough to keep working on a flat surface inside a van. Way too hard to use on your back. Too many adjustments to make.
Beast of Burden.
Special head wheel used ball bearings instead of air bearing used in regular VTRs. The headwheels didn’t have avery long life, before they had to be refurbed. I believe there was a mini vacuum pump in there to keep the tape against the guide shoe. Record only, so I remember the the guide height and tip penetration was adjusted by an Allen wrench and an outboard scope. Pretty marginal recording, so the playback machine of choice had to have a pretty wide correction window. You can imagine that the speed servo was essentially free running, so the control track was working pretty hard on playback to mimic the record speed fluctuations.