Castafiore Emerald: The model of the TV camera?

Does anyone know whether the TV camera used in the Castafiore Emerald is a model that existed at the time, or an artist view?

Indeed there was an article in quite recently in the French magazine Objectif Photos (December 2004/January 2005 issue #5) which featured an article about the cameras used by the photographers appearing in The Castafiore Emerald. Unfortunately I don't have it :( so I can‘t tell you if it included any info on the TV camera.

Harrock n roll
Objectif Photos (December 2004/January 2005 issue #5)

Thanks Harrock, I'll try and find this magazine...

There's a photograph of a director with a camera in The Complete Companion that Hergé drew almost without amendment in the book. The camera, however, is markedly different. In Tintin - Hergé & His Creation, Harry Thompson says "Curiously, in the sequence earlier in the book where a real TV crew visits Marlinspike, Hergé's always meticulous research let him down by its accuracy. The technique he depicted, using linked film and TV cameras, underwent a brief heydey circa 1962 before dying out. The cumbersome apparatus dates the story in a way that Tintin's celebrated trousers never could."

It therefore looks like it was a genuine model, but looks unusual because of the extra equipment needed to produce a telerecording whilst filming it. It would be unusual for Hergé to have drawn a camera from imagination at this point, especially as others in the book are genuine models - I remember someone selling a camera on eBay, advertising it was the same type as used by Gino in the book !

Richard
There's a photograph of a director with a camera in The Complete Companion that Hergé drew almost without amendment in the book.

Thanks for this info.
I checked in Farr's book's French version: the original camera has a flat-top reel (spool) cover on it, isn'it?

I wander why Herge had to modify it with a notch that makes it look double... Was it maybe just kind of a tribute to Mickey Mouse (as he reportedly did with Topolino), or could it be something else?

Strangely, our meticulous author has suffered a prolonged trouble to draw proper reels and cameras, for as soon as in the Congo, Tintin the magician can shoot girafes without any reel on his camera, contrary to the book's cover...
Funny to see such 'clearly delineated' trivial objects on book covers, but so unreal...

It's even worse in the Picaros, where Wagg's camera just melts (compare p51, D3 & p52, D1)... The local temperature doesn't seem so hot in that jungle though, for we don't see anybody sweating!

yamilah
It's even worse in the Picaros, where Wagg's camera just melts (compare p51, D3 & p52, D1)... The local temperature doesn't seem so hot in that jungle though, for we don't see anybody sweating!

Well spotted, Yamilah ! I've never seen that before, but yes, Wagg's camera does definitely seem to melt.

Congo is an unusual case, definitely - if it wasn't for Tintin cranking the handle on the side of it, it could just have been an old-fashioned box camera. It's odd that the bookcover has that detail on - it's present in the second black and white edition's cover too (the colour cover is essentially the same picture). Speaking of inaccuracies on covers, Destination Moon has a rather funny one - not only is the jeep completely different to the one in the book itself, it also has no steering wheel ... puts a different slant on Calculus' driving without a license, I suppose !

RE the Castafiore camera - I'm not sure why the notch was added, perhaps it's something to do with the process of telerecording and needs to hold another reel of film. Some information on the process can be found here. What does the French edition refer to the filming as (page 31, panel A, the presenter) ?

Richard
What does the French edition refer to the filming as (page 31, panel A, the presenter) ?

The presenter says to Bianca:
'Je vais vous expliquer ce que nous allons faire. Il s'agit d'une emission en differe'.

Hence we are facing a recorded broadcast...

As far as I can find, the only real pre-video 'film' TV camera resembling Herge's model is the Electronicam, it has a flat-top, and looks much bigger...

please see http://www.pharis-video.com/p4589.htm

So it should be an 'artist view'...
Such meticulous and methodical mistakes are rather strange, imho...