Vitascan

Vitascan (sometimes alternately spelled VitaScan) was an early color television camera system developed by American television equipment manufacturer DuMont Laboratories. Development began in 1949 and the product was released on an experimental basis in 1956. Vitascan was fully compatible with the NTSC color system, and DuMont Labs hoped the system would catch on in the television industry.

However, Vitascan cameras only worked indoors; the camera projected a light through the lens onto the subject. Tubes inside the camera scanned a stream of red, green, and blue signals. Strobe lighting was used on the darkened sets, resulting in a ghostly lighting effect. The system could not be used outdoors because sunlight would interfere with the camera's flying-spot scanning system.

Vitascan cameras were in use for a year at an independent television station in Milwaukee, WITI, but the limitations of the cameras caused WITI to eventually return to monochrome cameras. The television industry never adopted Vitascan, and television stations continued to operate mostly in black and white for many more years. Vitascan, like earlier DuMont technologies such as the Electronicam, failed to catch on.

External links

* [http://www.earlytelevision.org/dumont_vitascan.html Early Color TV: Vitascan]