4.5” Image Orthicon

Ref. T5

Following the success of the 3” Image Orthicon tube, a larger type was developed by RCA with even better performance, and came into general use in the mid-fifties. Its main drawback was its size: some 20” long, and 4.5” front (50 cm and 11.5 cm). Comparatively the 3” Image Orthicon looked small, and later, the 2” Image Orthicon, developed in Japan, looked rather cute.

Image Orthicon tubes remained “the state of the art” in the profession until the mid or late sixties, or even through the seventies, progressively superseded by the Vidicon and Plumbicon type tubes.