TELEVISION CAMERAS

Television Cameras
• The video signal for the picture starts in the camera. The
optical image is focused on a light-sensitive target plate in
the camera tube. By means of the photoelectric effect, the
light variations are converted to corresponding electric
signals.
• Conversion of the entire picture area to a video signal is
accomplished by the scanning process. The electron
scanning beam in the camera tube “looks” at each picture
element from left to right in each horizontal line, line by
line top to bottom.
Television Cameras
• As the scanning continues in this sequential order, the
light values for every point in the image are converted to
the signal output. The basic system is the same for color
or monochrome TV. For color, though, separate signals
are produced for the red, green, and blue picture
information.
Basic Operation of a TV Camera
• An important advantage of TV cameras is that you see the
picture immediately, instead of waiting for film processing.
• The camera is aimed at the scene so that the optical
image can be focused on the target plate of the picture
tube.
Basic Operation of a TV Camera
• First, blanking pulses are added to the camera signal.
They make the signal amplitude go to the black level so
that the retraces in scanning will not be visible. Then the
synchronizing (sync) pulses are inserted. Synchronization
is needed to time the horizontal and vertical scanning.

• The camera signal with blanking and sync is called a

composite video signal.
• Sometimes, the term noncomposite video signal is
used to identify the camera signal with blanking but
without sync.
Basic Operation of a TV Camera
• Optical Image
• Photoelectric Conversion
• Signal Processing
• Beam Control
• Camera Head and Camera Control Unit
Optical Image
• Vidicon camera tube is used

• The optical image is focused on the front glass faceplate.

Since the glass is transparent, the light strikes the
photoelectric image plate on the inside surface. The
optical lens produces an inverted image of the scene on
the rectangular area scanned by the electron beam.
Optical Image
• An inverted image is reversed right to left and bottom to
top. Any convergent lens produces an inverted image. In
this way, the lens functions exactly as in a film camera,
except that the focal plane is the vidicon faceplate instead
of a film surface.
Photoelectric Conversion
• Inside the camera tube, the light image is converted to an
electric charge pattern. The amount of charge for each
picture element varies directly with the amount of light.
This charge pattern is scanned sequentially in time by the
electron beam that sweeps over the image plate.
Scanning here is done from right to left and from bottom
to top. Remember that the image in the camera tube is
inverted by the lens.
Signal Processing
• Preamplifier:
• This stage represents a high-gain, low-noise amplifier, fully
shielded to prevent pickup of electrical interference.
• The electron scanning beam is cut off during the retrace intervals
for the horizontal lines and during the vertical retraces.
• This blanking retrace is necessary so that the beam can swing
back to its starting position without being visible.
• Retrace is also called flyback because it is much faster than trace.
Signal Processing
• Signal Processor and Sync Adder.
• The signal processing corrects undesired shading in the
picture and provides the desired contrast ratio.
• It is necessary to obtain the desired contrast ratio, called the
gamma correction, to compensate for the fact that the picture
tube emphasizes white in reproducing the image.
• Final processing includes clamping of the blanked parts of
the video signal to some reference voltage level, followed
by insertion of the synchronizing pulses. In effect, the
blanking level is a pedestal level at which the sync is
added.
Beam Control
• Included in the camera are provisions to control the
amount of beam current, focusing, and deflection in the
camera tube. The beam focus is critical because the size
of the moving spot determines the overall resolution, or
sharpness, of the resulting picture.
• The TV camera has two (2) focuse adjustments:
• Optical focus - brings the light image into sharp focus on the
surface of the pickup tube.
• The electrical focus sharpens the electron beam into a tiny spot on
the photosensitive suface being scanned. Otherwise, details are
lost as the beam straddles the picture elements.
Camera Head and Camera Control Unit
(CCU)
• Studio cameras are divided into two major sections:
• Head
• Business end
• Contains the pickup tube (or tubes in color cameras)
• Deflection circuits and other circuits needed for the camera tube and
preamplifier
• Control Unit
• CCU is the master control unit, located in the control room console.
• In the CCU are inteface connections with the master sync generator,
provision for remote control of the iris opening on the camera lens,
circuits for setting the black level, and other signal processing needs.
CCU
Types of Camera Tubes
• Vidicon
• Plumbicon
• Saticon
Vidicon
• The vidicon consists of a glass envelope with an optically
flat faceplate at the end to receive the light input. On the
rear surface of the faceplate, inside the evacuated
envelope, is the photosensitive material that serves as the
target plate, or image plate. The plate has two layers. To
the front, facing the light, is a thin coating that is
transparent to light but is electrically conductive. This
layer is made of tin oxide (SnO). Electric connection is
made to this layer by a metal target ring surrounding the
tube. The target ring is the signal output terminal.
Vidicon
• The back of the target plate, facing the electron gun, has
a coating of photosensitive material, usually antimony
trisulfide. This layer is photoconductive. Its resistance
decreases with increasing light. As a result, variations of
light intensity can be converted to electric signal
variations.
Vidicon
Plumbicon
• This camera tube is similar to the vidicon, except that the
targetl has a differentt construction. Some plumbicons
intendend for studio camera are a little larlgerr than
vidicons. Others are the same size as vidicons and are
interchangeable with vidicons and similar camera tubes.
Saticon
• The first three letters in the name saticon identify the
materials used for the target: selenium, arsenic, and
tellurium.

• Uses arseniic as a doping agent, which yields long-term

stability and prevents crystallization.

• Saticons can be produced at a relatively low cost, and

they perform in the same class as plumbicons. One of the
advantages of the saticon is its almost black target
material which reflects little light. The result is very little
light dispersion inside the material. This factor helps
reduce flare and improves resolution.
Camera Adjustments
• Target Voltage
• Beam Current
• Beam Alignment
• Focus
• Deflection
Target Voltage
• For vidicons, operation
at the recommended target
voltage provides optimum performance in terms of
sensitivity and lag.

• The target voltage is always measured with respect to the

cathode. When positive beam-blanking pulses are applied
to the cathode, the target voltage must be measured
between the target and cathode without the blanking
pulses.
Beam Current
• There must be sufficient beam current to discharge the
target at the brightest parts of the charge image.
Insufficient beam current results in a low video signal
output as well as whites that are saturated. Then white is
clipped off by the beam-current limitation. The peaks of
the output waveform appear flat, and bright parts of the
picture appear as white blobs, without detail.

• Excessive beam current produces geometric distortion

and defocusing of the image as a result of the
accumulation of electron space charge in the mesh-target
area.
Focus
• There are two (2) focus adjustments in a TV camera:
• Optical
• Electrical

• Optical focus matches the focal plane of the lens to the

target plane of the vidicon. In essence, the optical focus
sets the precise distance between the rear of the lens
mounting and the vidicon faceplate. This adjustment is
also known as back focus or flangeback.
Focus
• Electrical focus involves adjustment of a potentiometer.
The camera is aimed at a test pattern, and the focus is set
for the sharpest picture. The focus is set for best
resolution of the vertical striped wedgest in the test
pattern.
Beam Alignment
• An assembly is mounted on the pickup tube, at the rear of
the deflection yoke assembly, to align the electron beam
with the center of the deflection-focus axis. Theis beam
magnet consists of two sets of coils having magnetic axes
at right angles to the tube axis and at right angles to each
other.

• To adjust the beam alignment, the camera is pointed at a

test pattern and the electrical focus is rocked back and
forth. In cameras that use magnetic focusing, the picture
appears to rotate.
Deflection
• The deflection size depends on the amplitude of the
horizontal and vertical current ramps in the deflection
coils. The width and height are adjusted to scan the full
optical image on the target. In some cases, an opaque
mask is affliixed to the pickup tube faceplate, and the
deflection is adjusted until the mask just becomes visible
at the edges of the picture.
END OF PRESENTATION