Video camera tubes were devices based on the cathode-ray tube that were used in television cameras to capture television images, prior to the introduction of charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors in the 1980s. Several different types of tubes were in use from the early 1930s, and as late as the 1990s.
Vidicon tube 2⁄3 inch (17 mm) in diameter
A display of numerous video camera tubes from the 1930s and 1940s, photographed in 1954, with iconoscope inventor Vladimir K. Zworykin.
Farnsworth image dissector tube from 1931
A graphic from Kálmán Tihanyi's "Radioskop" patent from 1926 (part of the UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme)
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images. Originally developed for use in television studios or with outside broadcast trucks, they are now also used for music videos, direct-to-video movies, corporate and educational videos, wedding videos, among other uses. Since the 2000s, most professional video cameras are digital.
Modern digital television camera with a DIGI SUPER 86II xs lens from Canon
Sony HDC-1550 camera with Fujinon lens
This 1954 RCA TK-41C, shown here mounted on a dolly, weighed 310 lbs.
A 1973 Ikegami HL-33 ENG