Pickup tube - Definition and Overview

In older video cameras, prior to the 1990s, a video camera tube or pickup tube was used instead of a charge-coupled device (CCD). Several types were in use from the 1930s to the 1980s. They operate in a somewhat similar manner to cathode ray tubes, which display pictures, but are instead used to capture images that are projected onto them through the camera lens system.

Vidicon

A vidicon tube (sometimes called a hivicon tube) is a video camera tube in which the target material is made of antimony trisulfide (Sb₂S₃).

The terms vidicon tube and vidicon camera are often used indiscriminately to refer to video cameras of any type. The principle of operation of the vidicon camera is typical of other types of video camera tubes.

Orthicon

The image orthicon tube or simply orthicon tube was common up into the 1960s. It required a great deal of light to work adequately, so television studios could become excessively hot from the heat of lamps when orthicon-based cameras were in use. A nickname for the tube was the "immy", which later was feminized to become the "Emmy".

Plumbicon

Saticon

Pasecon

Newicon

External links

• Orthicon brief history, description and diagram (http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/IMAGE_ORTHICON.html)

Example Usage of Pickup