1976 Hitachi FP-3030 portable color ENG camera

This is a portable, self-contained color camera for industrial or low budget broadcast use. It is extremely small for a self-contained color camera of 1976, and its light weight and small size were possible because of the special "Tri-electrode" vidicon tube it uses. Tri-electrode vidicons were made only by Hitachi, they were made in 2/3 inch and 1 inch sizes, and the FP-3030 uses a 1 inch tube. A Tri-electrode vidicon, is a tube that has the target divided into three sections, one for each color; red green and blue. A stripe filter is used to dissect the colors. Using this method, all color channels are produced at the same time, and the color processing circuitry used in a conventional (single tube) color camera is not needed. This makes the camera a lot more compact.

This camera comes in many pieces: the camera head, the lens, viewfinder,  handgrip, and the microphone. On the side of the camera, there is a beam on/off switch.  In "off" position, it warms up the tube, and in "on" the beam is turned on to start scanning. The two switches to the right are for flipping the picture backwards and upside down. On the back, there are four trim pots, two for white balance, two for black balance. There's also an ASC on/off switch, video out, and 10 pin camera connector.  The camera came in its original foam packaging, and has been very lightly used. It works very nicely, although it needs a HUGE amount of light to make a good picture.