Sony 1640 camera

This was one of the very first 'Electronic News Gathering' cameras, and gives a nice indication
just how fast companies such as Sony were catching up with the established 'broadcast' camera
manufacturers during the 1970's. One only has to compare this device with the rather 'Stone Age'
Sony Rover system of just a few years before, to draw some obvious conclusions.

With this 1640p camera we see a tough cast alloy case with easy access to the interior, robust
controls, on-the-shoulder working and a decent (adjustable) handle to hold the beast with while
'filming'. The Canon zoom lense is even starting to look like a 'real' ENG lens. (Though with a
rather unreliable 'galvo' type iris, not the much more reliable motor driven type of later lenses.)

While by no means a 'proper' television camera, the 1640 was though a simple and rugged
machine that under good lighting conditions (lots of lumens) could produce rather nice images. Not
particularly sharp and with noticeable image lag, it did give very acceptable colour, which was
rather a novelty in a low end TV camera (Ł2,500) of the late 1970's. One might recall that the
early cheap domestic colour camera (unlike today) produced truely diabolical pictures...

12 Volts in, auto iris, manual focus, manual white balance, nothing much else to adjust and 1 Volt
composite out - simple. I imagine many of these were tied to Umatic or even VHS portables, and
signed the death warrant of many a 16mm news cine camera. I recall that in the film 'The Electric
Horseman' Jane Fonda carries one of these around until Mr Redford throws it in a lake...

Click on the pictures for some internal views.